I've Got You, Beca
by MsDaHedgehog
Summary: Set a couple of months after Beca yells at Jesse in front of everyone at the semi-finals. Beca seems to have gone off the grid and no one can get hold of her until Jesse plucks up the courage to face her at her dorm. When he finds that she's in need of being taken care of, is he prepared to rise to the challenge? And if he is, will she let him?
1. Chapter 1

I've Got You, Beca

Chapter 1

Six weeks. Six weeks since the semi-finals. Six weeks since she'd yelled at him in front of everyone. Six weeks since she'd walked away from him and the Bella's. Six weeks since he'd tried to forget about her. Five weeks since he had realised he couldn't. Five weeks since he'd slammed the door in her face. Five weeks since he'd regretted that action. Five weeks since she'd finally given up and stopped trying. Four weeks since she had started to openly avoid him. Three weeks since she'd tried, and failed, to have her shifts changed at the radio station. Two weeks since the Trebles told him to snap out of it. Once week since he'd last seen her hanging out in the quad with her friends. Four days since he'd last seen her at all.

Jesse knew that he shouldn't be concerned about her but he couldn't help it; he still cared deeply for Beca. He knew that she hadn't gone back to being part of the Barden Bella's, but she was still seeing them for lunch and in between classes. Jesse would see her around campus with the girls, or in the music department helping a few of them with their pitch. He even saw her in the student run diner with Chloe a few times. He never once saw her with Aubrey though. Jesse noticed that at least one or two of the Bella's would spend a portion of their free time with her. However, he hadn't seen any of the Bella's with her, or in general, for the last week. The more he really thought about Beca the more he realised that he hadn't actually seen her for himself in four days.

His first thought was '_had she rejoined the Bella's?_' It was highly unlikely, but it was the only explanation that explained both her's and the rest of the Bella's disappearance from campus existence. He dismissed this theory once he really thought it through - as long as Aubrey was the leader, Beca would never be granted her place back. He found himself thinking if she'd actually managed to change her shifts around. It didn't take long for _that_ theory to be squashed to. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind that Luke the station manager had exited the sound booth and practically shouted at Jesse demanding to know where Beca was.

"Jesse, where the hell is Becky?"

"Uh..." Wait, what? _Luke_ didn't know? There was something seriously wrong here. If Luke didn't know that means she hadn't changed her shifts. So where the hell was she? "You.. you don't know?"

"Of course I don't bloody know, would I be asking you if I did? Aren't you two supposed to be best friends, or together or something?" Jesse's heart sank at his words. He was worried now. Where the hell was she?

"We're not exactly talking at the moment. Have you tried calling her, maybe she has a late running lacture or something?"

"Yes, I've tried calling her, she's not answering her damn phone. This is Becky we're talking about, we both know she doesn't go to most of her lectures, and I seriously doubt that _you_ haven't noticed that she hasn't been in for her last four shifts. You tell her, she misses one more and she'd fired." With that, Luke stormed back into the sound booth and slammed the door behind him.

Jesse stood there, shocked, with his mouth open. He pulled out his phone and debated for a full ten minutes on whether to actually call her before deciding that he had to. He had to see if she was alright... no matter what went on between them, he had to see that she was okay, that she was safe. He hit speed dial two (yes, he still had on her there, second only after his mother) and prayed that she would answer. He growled in frustration as he got her voicemail.

"_This is Beca, leave a message..._"

"Beca... it's Jesse. You haven't been turning up at the station and... well... you just haven't been around anywhere. Luke's gonna fire you if you miss tomorrows shift... so... yeah... where the hell are you?"

Jesse ended the call before hitting his phone against his forehead in frustration. Okay, so he didn't actually expect her to answer the phone to him but it still pissed him off that she hadn't. He was slightly more annoyed at himself for be so... abrupt. He hadn't asked her if she was okay, he had only thrown at her voicemail that she'll be fired if she didn't turn up to the station again. He felt bad but what was he supposed to have done? It seemed like she was avoiding the whole world now. He only had one option - talk to the Bella's as soon as he could. Jesse scrolled through his phone but when he reached the bottom of his contacts he realised that he didn't have _any_ of the Bella's numbers. Not exactly surprising when he really thought about it - Trebles and Bella's weren't supposed to get along, and it seemed he and Beca had been the exception to this rule. It looked like he would have to actually seek one of the Bella's out when he left after his shift.

Jesse only had to wait it out an hour before he bid an unanswered goodbye to Luke before he headed out of the radio station to go on the search for a Barden Bella. It hit him as he walked towards the quad that the Bella's would probably be rehearsals by now, he remembered Beca moaning countless times over her Wednesday shift clashing and the numerous arguments with Aubrey because of it. If he headed to their rehearsal space, there was a high chance he'd leave without his balls but he felt that it was worth the risk; his increasing concern of Beca's whereabouts becoming slightly overwhelming.

He gave up trying to think of another way that didn't involve either walking into a Bella's rehearsal or going straight to Beca's dorm and pounding on her door, because she sure as hell wouldn't appreciate that. Sighing to himself, he took a deep breath and just short of sprinted to the Bella's rehearsal space, stopping short when he could hear Aubrey shouting.

"This just isn't good enough! It's like none of you have even been practising any of the choreography in the past two months! How can we win if not a single one of you is putting any effort in? I want you to all do ten laps and then we're starting again, from the top!"

"Damn... Beca wasn't joking when she said Aubrey was a tough bitch..." Jesse thought to himself as he stood outside the door listening to the many groans of pain towards the impending workout. His mention of Beca's name snapped him back in to his senses as he squared his shoulders, wrenched open the door, and stormed inside.

Every single woman present in the room eye him suspisicously, clearly not trusting him in the slightest - he was a Treble afterall. That didn't stop him from walking boldly into the centre of the room, right up to Aubrey as she all but screamed at him.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here? This is a _Bella's_ rehearsal - or are you Trebles really stooping that low -"

"Aubrey, for once in your life can you just _shut up_!" Jesse wasn't going to take any of her crap, not today, he was too tired to deal with her really but if her wasnted to find Beca, he needed to grit his teeth and carry on. He stared at the woman in front of him, making eye contact with her and hoping that she'll see the plea in his eyes for her to just listen. "I'm not here to spy, I'm here to see if any of you have seen Beca?"

Jesse looked round to all the girls, noticing the glares he was getting from most of them, and the slightly sympathetic one he was getting from Chloe and Fat Amy. He could tell that they all knew parts of what had gone on, but evidently, only these two knew there was more to the story than what it seemed. He saw that Fat Amy was just about to speak up before Aubrey jumped in.

"Well, she's not a Bella, so she isn't here. You've had a wasted journey, _Jesse_." Jesus, what was this woman's problem. Jesse needed to talk to a few of the senior Trebles and find out what her deal was, something must have gone on for her to hate them all so much.

"Aubrey, just stop." Chloe had finally stepped forward and moved in between Jesse and Aubrey, obviously sensing that things could get out of hand quickly if she didn't. She stood there facing Jesse and he could see he battling on whether it was best to tell him anything she knew. "A few of us had lunch with her like a week ago but Bella rehearsals started to get more frequent so we haven't been able to. To be honest, I don't think any of us have heard from her since then. I know she hasn't answered any of my messages." She looked towards the others, silently asking if they had spoken to Beca, but they all shook theirs heads. Jesse's heart sank and he really started to overthink all the possibilities of what could have happened to her. He turned back to Chloe when she resumed talking. "But that's Beca. She closes herself off sometimes when theres something wrong. She said she wasn't feeling so great and that her dad was really pushing her so she wasn't exactly in the best of moods. Don't you work together at the radio station? I know you two aren't exactly on speaking terms but won't you see her there for your shift?"

Jesse sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand before running it through his hair. "You're right, we're not talking, and I do work with her. But that's why I'm looking for her. She hasn't turnt up for her shifts for the past few days and Luke's threatening to fire her. I've tried calling but she won't answer, though that's not surprising considering. She hasn't answered Luke either but if she's not answering you guys then she won't answering anybody. I'm gonna head up to her dorm... Kimmy Jin should be there at the very least I think, maybe she knows where Beca is. Thanks ladies, have a good rehearsal." Jesse turned and jogged away and headed to Beca's dorm.

Whilst Aubrey was trying to keep her breathing under control so she didn't projectile vomit everywhere, Chloe moved over to Fat Amy. They tried to keep their conversation whispered so not to set Aubrey off again.

"I knew there was something wrong with shawshank. Why didn't I think to go round and see her skinny ass?"

"No ones gone round there because we know that Beca needs the time plus when would we? We're all so busy at the moment. Though if she's missing her shifts all together now something must not be right, hopefully Jesse can find out."

"Yeah, though I don't think Beca will be best pleased when Jesse turns up, she's not exactly forgiven him for not forgiving her."

"Why are they both so dam complicated. I say they should just kiss and make up. Would be better in the lon-"

"That's enough." Aubrey, it had seemed, had controlled herself to take back over the rehearsal. "I don't want to hear anymore about Beca or her toner for the Treble boy. I want to get this damn setlist rehearsed for once! Now finish your cardio so we can go from the top." She clicked her fingers before she started to wave her arms around like a hooligan. Chloe and Fat Amy just looked at each other before they joined the rest in what Amy called 'vertical running'.


	2. Chapter 2

Jesse's speed slowed considerably as he once again reached the quad. He was trying to think of what to say to Beca when he unexpectedly turned up at her door. She probably wouldn't want to see him given everything that has happened, nor did he think she would expect him to care about what happens with her. He went over everything Chloe had said to him, trying to see if he could possibly pinpoint whats causing Beca to be AWOL. She'd mentioned Beca saying that she wasn't feeling too good, but Beca wasn't the type to let a little cold stop her from going about her day to day life. The only other indicator that Chloe had mentioned was about Beca's dad pushing her; he knew they had a rocky relationship but had things escalated now? Was this the reason for withdrawing herself from existence? He realised that his feet and traced the familiar oath to Beca's dorm without him realising and now he was standing outside her door.

Jesse took a deep breath and raised his fist, pausing momentarily before giving the door a few sharp knocks. "Beca?" He called out but he went unanswered. He was about to raise his fist again when he realised that there was the faint sounds of music creeping through the door. He leaned forwards and pressed his ear against it and he could make out that it was the unmistakable sounds of one of Beca's mixes playing. Jesse almost smiled before he realised that Beca was in her room, and that she was ignoring him. She must of known he was outside, because as he called through the door again (this time a little louder) he noticed that the music had been turned off and silence was now filling the room behind the closed door.

"Beca, I know you're in there. You've turned your music off so I know you can definitely hear me. Open the door please, we need to talk..." Jesse waited for a few seconds but there was still no sound coming from beyond the door. He was getting a little angry now and he'd had enough. "Beca if you don't open this door I will go and find Kimmy-Jin and make her open it for me and we both know your life will be hell living with her after that." Jesse didn't know why he had said that, he knew he didn't have the courage to do that and there was a good chance Beca knew it to, but it was worth a try. Jesse was just about to pound on the door again when he heard Beca's faint voice float through the door.

"There's no need for you to do that, Nerd, the doors unlocked. You can come in if you feel you really need to." There was a slight breathless edge to her voice that Jesse didn't like.

It took Jesse a minute to gather his thoughts before he turned the handle to Beca's door and let himself into her room. He entered with caution, not sure what mood she was in but as he turned to face her he stopped dead, shocked by her appearance. She was sitting on her bed, feet out in front of her and her back propped up by pillows. She had numerous cuts and bruises over her face and neck, some serious enough for stitches. Her left wrist was in a brace and there was a lone crutch by the head of her bed and Jesse took that to mean that she had some sort of injury to one of her legs.

"Beca...?" He started but couldn't finish his sentence. He pushed the door closed behind him and lent with his back against it. Jesse didn't know whether he should go over to her or stay where he was and it seemed that Beca wasn't sure on what he should do either. He watched her as she closed her laptop and placed it on the bed next to her and as she tried to moved herself from her seated position. It was when Jesse saw her wince and gasp in pain that he walked over and knelt in front of her.

"Beca, what happened? Talk to me, please." He placed his hand over hers and he noticed how her braced one was balled to where her ribs were. He waited for what seemed like hours before she turned her hand under his to grip it. She was looking at him now, her breathing a little ragged signalling that talking was going to be an effort.

"Got hit by a car." He noticed that she tried to smile at him but it seemed that she just couldn't muster it.

"What? Beca when did this happen? How did it happen? Why didn't you tell... anyone?" He still had her hand but the palm of his other was now resting against her cheek, his thumb rubbing gently over one of her bruises. Any anger, frustration and annoyance he had felt towards her had evaporated now and all he felt was concern. He didn't care how long it took, he wouldn't leave her until she'd opened up to him and told him what he needed to know.

"About four days ago, after I left the station, I literally passed out in the path of an oncoming car. My phone got as banged up as me and I'm still waiting on a replacement and as you've probably guessed, moving isn't exactly easy, hence the not contacting anyone. I only come back here this morning anyway so I haven't seen anyone... only you." She looked like she was going to cry, and the Beca Mitchell Jesse knew never cried. "To be honest, I didn't even think anyone would notice I wasn't around. I mean, the girls are super busy; Aubrey's practically got them rehearsing day and night since they're getting to go to the finals. I don't exactly have any other friends in this place... I pushed the only person who truly meant something to me away and I thought... thought I'd screwed it up for good."

Jesse stopped stroking her cheek and let his hand fall away from her face. Had she just admitted that he meant something to her? Had she actually volunteered her personal feelings up on a silver platter? She had looked at him then looked away again, a little hurt when he moved his hand away from her. Obviously she must be thinking that she'd gone too far and was pushing him away again, Jesse had to do something, make her see that she'd done the exact opposite.

"Beca? Beca look at me." He pulled her chin up and she was forced to make eye contact with him. "If you think I stopped caring about you, I didn't. You really think I didn't notice you missing? We may not having been talking but hell Beca, I couldn't stop thinking about you. Believe me, I tried but I just couldn't. You deserve all the blame here, okay? You apologised but I refused to listen, I pushed you away and I regretted it but it was too late to take it back... I screwed up to, Becs. I convinced myself that you'd finally succeeded in finding a way to avoid me completely and it hurt, hurt to know that I'd made you feel like you had to. When Luke said that he hadn't seen or heard from you I knew there was something wrong, you wouldn't give up working at the station, no matter our... situation." He smiled softly at her. There were tears gathered at the brim of her eyes that were threatening to spill over. He continued, keeping his tone soft. "I gatecrashed Bella's rehearsal trying to find you."

Beca's eyes widened. "You what?"

Jesse nodded. "Yeah, I fully believe you now when you say she's a bitch. I swear the girls looked ready to drop. I put her in her place though," he grinned at her, getting a small one in return. "Even Chloe told her to stop; I think you've influenced them Becs."

Beca laughed but he saw she regretted it instantly. She gasped and gripped his hand harder as pain radiated through her damaged ribs. It took a few minutes before the pain died down enough for her to move. "You okay, Beca?"

"I need to take something for this pain, I can't take it any longer. My dad dropped me off and is coming back later but he has my meds and I can't call him. I was doing okay when I was leaning on the bed, I just need to get back in that position and then I'll be fine."

"Let me help you?" He held his breath waiting for her to reply. He was sure she would say no, demand that she could manage on her own, not that would make a difference, he was going to help her whether she liked it or not. Beca seemed to know that already because she glanced at him, thought for a moment let out a sigh and said the opposite of what Jesse thought.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes, okay."

"You'll let me help you?"

Jesse could tell Beca was trying her best not to laugh at him again. "That is what yes usually means." He grinned. He had missed her. More than missed her. He was still a little upset about what happened and he could tell she still wasn't feeling good about it but talking more about that could wait for a while. He took majority of her weight (not that that was a lot!) and gently lifted her up enough to place her legs back on the bed. She winced and gasped a few more times in pain and stiffened when he went to move her legs back into the position she was originally in.

"I've got you, Beca." He whispered lightly to her as she moved his hands back to hers. "Relax and the pain wont be so bad, okay?"

She nodded but it took her a few minutes to regain control. When the pain seemed to have settled she smiled at him. "Thanks, Jesse."

"Anytime Becs. Listen... Do you want me to go find your dad and get your meds? You shouldn't have to spend the next few hours in pain if you don't have to. I can get us something for dinner and we can continue with moviecation?" He was hopeful... and it was showing. Beca seemed a little scared to him.

"You don't have to do that, Jesse. I don't deserve you being nice to me, I know that and I don't expect you to. I wont be surprised or offended if you just want to leave."

"No, Beca. You're not doing this again. I'm not letting you push me away again, especially when you need me. Your dad will be in class now right? I'll just go get your meds and pick us up something from the canteen. I won't be long and you can even pick the movie!"

Beca's feeble attempt to throw something at him just made Jesse laugh harder. He soon stopped though once he saw pain flash across Becas face.

"Sorry, Beca. I'll be gone an hour tops. Here," He handed over his phone to her. "If the pain gets worse or you needed something phone Chloe or one of the girls. See you soon. Becaw!"

He left her room, but not before giving her another wide grin. They still had a long way to go but things were looking up, and one thing was for sure - he definitely wasn't going to let her push him away again.

* * *

_**Not sure I'm entirely happy with this chapter, but let me know what you guys think!**_


	3. Chapter 3

Jesse closed the door softly but securely behind him and leaned back against it, all smiles gone. He hadn't been prepared for any of what just happened. He had been simply expecting to turn up, relay what Luke had said, walk away and return, once again, to the two of then not talking. Never, in his wildest dreams, would he thought that's how he would find Beca; bruised, broken and only a sliver of her former self. He was glad, now, that Luke had mentioned Beca not turning up for her shifts, glad that the senior had threatened to fire her, glad that he still cared enough about her to find out what the hell was going on. If he hadn't, Jesse never would have made the first steps towards rebuilding his friendship with Beca. They still had a very long way to go, but the last half an hour had been a big leap forward.

Jesse pushed away from the door and headed down along the empty corridor to the stairwell. Beca's dad, Dr Mitchell, should still be teaching his Comparative Literature lecture across campus, but if Jesse times it right, he would reach the hall just in time for it to end. He had no intention to leave Beca alone for any longer than he had to, not when it was so clear the woman needed someone to take care of her.

It only took Jesse seven minutes to walk from Beca's dorm room to the lecture hall on the other side of campus. He was almost five minutes early and he decided it would be best to wait for the lecture to actually finish, rather than barging in and have every student in there focus on him walking up to Beca's dad. He wasn't entirely sure how the conversation with him would go, he hadn't the faintest idea just how much Beca had divulged to him about the events of the past few weeks. He didn't have too much time to dwell on his worries because in no time he heard movements from inside the hall and within seconds, fifty students came flooding through the double doors. He waited for the last few stragglers to pass him before entering. Dr. Mitchell was standing next to the computer stationed at the side of the room. Jesse started to descend the stairs before calling out.

"Dr. Mitchell, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Beca's dad changed his focus from the screen in front of him and observed Jesse for a brief moment, scanning his face, before responding to him.

"Of course, of course. I haven't seen you in any of my lecture's this semester, are you thinking of switching over from something else?"

It was clear to Jesse that R. Mitchell hadn't been to wither of the performances Beca had appeared in, if he had, surely he would recognise Jesse from the Treblemaker's set?

"No, no, I'm perfectly happy with studying music technology and theory - I have no plans so switching. I'm here about Beca."

Dr. Mitchell looked slightly confused. "What exactly is it about my daughter you wish to discuss, Mr...?"

"Swanson. Jesse Swanson."

Suddenly there was a look of deep recognition on his face. "Ah, yes, well, Mr Swanson, please take a seat. What has Beca done now?"

"What? No, she hasn't done anything." Jesse swallowed and walked further down the stairs. He didn't want to seem out of line. "I went to see Beca. She's in a fair bit of pain and said you wouldn't be dropping her meds round until later. I don't think she can last another couple of hours so I said I would come and get them for her."

Dr. Mitchell sighed. "I knew I should of dropped them round earlier but she insisted I come here. If she's complaining about the pain then it must be getting bad. Hang on." He left Jesse sitting in one of the halls seats and walked over to his briefcase and pulled out a fairly large pharmacy bag. He walked back over and handed it to Jesse. "They explained to her at the hospital how to take them and what to do and what not to do."

"Thank you, Sir. I better head back, I said I would pick up dinner for us after leaving you."

"So the two of you are getting along again. All water under the bridge?"

Jesse cringed, he was hoping not to discuss this. "We'll get there. We still have a lot to talk about but we're both willing to try, and that's good enough for me at the moment."

Beca's dad nodded. Jesse started walking back up the stairs, taking two at a time. Just as he reached the door however, he looked back as Dr. Mitchell's voice floated up to him.

"Don't bee too hard on my daughter, Jesse, a lot of her problems stem from what I put her through years ago. Trust me when I say she'll open up to you when she's ready."

Jesse nodded towards the older man and exited through the door, now even more curious about what had made Beca, well, 'Beca'.

Jesse didn't head to the cafeteria, instead, he detoured a few minutes off campus to the nearest pizza place. He ordered the date night special without realising until it was placed in front of him five minutes later. Before heading back to Becas, he stopped off at his dorm to pick up a couple of packs of popcorn and replenish his backpacks juice pouch stash.

It wasn't long before he was once again standing outside Beca's dorm room door preparing to knock. Taking a nervous breath, he shifted the food boxes in his arms, knocked and called out to her.

"Beca, it's me, I'm gonna let myself in okay?"

There was no answer from beyond the door and Jesse couldn't hear her music. Considering how she was earlier, Jesse couldn't help but be a little concerned about her lack of response. Glad that he'd thought to leave the latch on, he pushed the door open, tip-toed inside, stopped and smiled at the sight of the figure on the bed. Beca was sleeping peacefully in a seated position, propped up by her obscene amount of pillows and cushions. But what surprised Jesse the most, was the act that she had fallen asleep clutching a particularly worn and grubby looking white teddy bear. He took a few minutes to observe the sleeping woman properly. Her face wasn't as bruised as he first thought, but there were more cuts and gashes along her arms and shoulders than he noticed before. He knew that she would wake soon so he fished around her room, finding the disposable plates he knew she kept in a box under her bed. He dished them both up a healthy dealing of pizza, chicken wings, garlic bread and the bottles of water he'd ordered before turning to place the plates on Beca's desk, only to find her big brown eyes staring directly at him.

"Enjoy ransacking my room? Did you find my secret stash of midget porn?"

The first thing Jesse noticed as he stood there laughing was that the old teddy bear had mysteriously disappeared, where to he had no idea. The second was that Beca was smiling back at him with a genuine smile. This was probably the first time Jesse had received this rare smile, yes it was off the back of one of her famously sarcastic comments, but through the cuts, bruises and pain, her smile reached her eyes - and that's how he knew this time was different.

"Funnily enough, I didn't find any midget porn. Though if you fancy showing it to me later, I'll be a very, very happy man."

"Too far, dude, too far."

Jesse grinned at her as he pulled the pharmacy bag from his backpack and place her bottle of water on the bed next to her.

"Dinners all ready to be eaten so take those and I'll set a movie up on your laptop. What do you want to watch?"

"There's already one in there, play that."

"Beca Mitchell willingly inserted a movie in to her laptop? I have made progress!" He fist pumped the air as he finished talking.

"You're such a weirdo. It's been in there since Spring Break. I've watched in a few times, it's a good film."

Jesse raised an eyebrow as he handed her one of the plates. "What is it?"

"You'll see."

She gave him a nervous sideways smirk as she lent back against her pillow mountain, her paper plate resting on her thighs. Jesse stared at her with intrigue, confusion and pure delight - it seemed as though his attempts to educate her finally been successful. Jesse grabbed his own plate from the desk and turned back towards the bed. He wasn't sure how there were going to watch the film; normally they would sit the other way round, with their backs against the wall, however, with Beca already seated, he'd be quite pushed for space. Beca, seemingly having read his mind, spoke up.

"I'm not moving. You'll have to climb over and squish your skinny ass in next to me. Just be careful, my hip is a little sore."

Jesse nodded before handing Beca his plate. He was careful not to jostle the bed too much in case it caused her any additional pain. He settled in next to her, their shoulders jammed together. Jesse pulled the laptop back and placed it so it balanced equally on their legs and pressed play. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened as the beginning sounds of 'The Breakfast Club' filled the room.

"Beca?"

"I got bored over Srping Break okay? I found it under my bed one night and stuck it on. You must of left it here and it just got forgotten about. It's actually a pretty good film, so if you don't mind, I think I'm just gonna shut up and watch it." She bit in to a slice of pizza and focused her attention on the screen before them.

Jesse was gobsmacked. Beca Mitchell, the notorious movie hater had just all but admitted that she loved 'The Breakfast Club', his all time favourite movie. He watched out the corner of his eye the whole way through; she had mouthed her way along with the dialogue. Towards the end of the film though, her head found it's way to his shoulder but he was surprised to find her fighting sleep to watch the ending.

Just as the ending credits appeared Jesse, thinking that Beca had finally fallen asleep, closed the laptop and tried to maneuver himself around so not to cause her to wake or any pain. As he tried to place her head against her pillow mountain, she mumbled something in his direction.

"I'm sorry, Jesse. I'm so, so sorry."

Jesse stared at Beca, his heart breaking slightly. Never before has he heard her sound so... broken.

"Beca? Becs? What are you so sorry for? Becs, stay awake."

His attempts at waking her proved to be futile; she had already submerged in to what appeared to be a deep slumber. He had a good idea what that was about but he also knew that he couldn't force her to tell him, especially if she was out for the count. They would have plenty of time to discuss everything that;s happened in the past few weeks, later, but right now, his main priority was to help Beca recover in any and every way he could. He looked round her room and decided to tidy bits up. Taking her room key from her desk, Jesse ran the trash down to the communal garbage cans and when he returned, helped himself to some more pizza before settling down on her desk chair to work on his latest composition.

He'd been working for nearly two hours before Beca jerked awake with a loud hiss of pain. He jumped from the chair to help her as she tried to pull herself in to a more seated position. When she was comfortable, Jesse handed her the pain pills and her water, which she took gratefully, but avoided eye contact - clearly she was not too out of it earlier and remembered her desperate apology. Jesse decided that it would be best to let her bring it up herself, rather than push her to talk about it. Surprisingly, though, the wait would not be a long one.

He watched as she took a deep breath and when she finally made eye contact with him, he did not look away.

"I meant what I said, Jesse. I really am sorry. For everything."

"We don't have to talk about this now, Beca. Not if you don't want to. We can wait until you're feeling better."

"I'm fine, Jesse. We both know that the longer we leave it, the less likely we are to actually talk about it. I'm ready to finally talk to someone about everything, and I want that person to be you. I have hated myself for the last couple of months over what I did to you and there are no excuses to explain why."

She looked away briefly before taking a deep breath and returned to staring at him directly in to his eye. Dr. Mitchel was right - Beca really would open up to him when she was ready. Before he could respond to her, she had started to try and mover herself from the bed, and Jesse didn't know why.

"What are you doing, Becs?"

"Attempting to go to the bathroom. I may be battered and bruised, but my bladder is still in perfect working order. If I'm not back in half an hour, send out a search party." She gave him a small grin, which he returned, before leaning over slightly to grab her crutch and slowly standing. Jesse moved to her side, holding her arm to keep her steady.

"Let me help you?"

Beca raised her eyebrow. "To the bathroom? I don't think so. I do not need your assistance to pee, not matter the condition I'm in."

Jesse rolled his eyes., moved her arm over his shoulder and started to lead her towards to door. "Obviously not in there. I'll walk you there, stand outside, then walk you back. I'm not some sort of pervert you know."

Beca let out a short laugh as she let Jesse lead her along the corridor towards the bathrooms. The usual two minute walk took the both of them nearly fifteen; each step Beca took was excruciatingly slow. Jesse walked Beca right in to one of the stalls and it was then that she turned towards him and placed a hand on his chest to stop him going any further.

"Dude, I can take it from here, you can go wait outside."

Jesse rolled his eyes at her again. "I'm not planning on actually coming in with you, and I am outside."

"No, no. Out, outside. Like out in the hall outside. I do not want you to hear me pee."

"Relax, Becs, I'm not gonna listen to you pee. I'll run the tap and ignore you, but I'd rather be in here just in case."

"And what will you say if someone walks in?"

"That I'm considering a sex change. Now go pee, I wanna finish my work tonight."

It took all Beca's efforts not to laugh at Jesse and his serious tone. She entered the stall, shut the door and as soon as it was locked, she could hear Jesse turn one of the taps on and start to sing 'Don't You Forget About Me'. Five minutes later, the two of them made their way back to Beca's room. Once inside, she settled herself back on the bed and turned her head towards Jesse.

"Jesse, there's some things about why I'm the way I am that I need to explain to you. Will you come sit so we can talk?"

"You sure you're up to this?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Jesse moved towards the bed and sat crossed-legged and facing her on the other end of the bed. He smiled and nodded to her as his way of letting her know he was comfortable and ready for her to start.

"My mom and dad divorced when I was ten. He'd been cheating on my mom for a year before she found out. It destroyed her. Sheila - the woman dad cheated with and now wife - was my moms best friend. They worked together and when my mom had to work extra shifts or cover for someone, Sheila would babysit me after school until my dad got home. At first she left as soon as he hung up his jacket but then when I was eight, she started staying for a while after he got in." She paused and rearranged her positioning against her pillows. "As time went on, I noticed that some nights, she'd still be at the house when I went to bed. When I was nine, my mom came home early one night and found them. I was in bed and asleep but the shouting between the three of them woke me up. I was too young to fully understand what was going on but dad moved out and started living with Sheila and mom cried herself to sleep every night. Their divorce was finalised on my tenth birthday."

Jesse had his eyebrows raised in shock. What a way to celebrate your entering double digits. "Wow, Becs, I'm sorry."

"Oh I'm not done." Jesse nodded and delved in to his backpack, withdrawing two juice pouches and passing her one. She took it gratefully, pierced the top of it with the straw and sucked out more than half the liquid before continuing with her story. "He started a custody battle over me when he filed for divorce. I remember there being months and months of them fighting over who would have me and when. My mom had to take me with her to one of the meetings. The arguing between them got so bad that I ran from the room. In the end it was my moms lawyer that found me in one of the buildings bathrooms. I begged him to let me stay with my mom, told him that I didn't want my dad to break my heart like he did hers. Because of my age, the Judge ruled that I was old enough to have an opinion and awarded my mom custody, with my dad only allowed to have me one weekend every month. I was okay, I missed my dad but I was happy with not constantly seeing him playing happy families with his new girlfriend. My mom changed though. She was withdrawn, was diagnosed with depression, eventually I learnt o take care of myself and after a while I had to start taking care of her to." Beca finished off her juice and Jesse passed her another. She pulled one of her many pillows from behind her and place it under her knee, elevating it.

"Your dad didn't try and fight for you again?"

"No. I didn't give him the opportunity to find out. It was all his fault, he caused it. To add salt to the wound, whenever it came to me going to stay with him, he would involve Sheila in everything. He only got to see me for three days a month and instead of spending that time re-bonding with me, it was all about Sheila. In the end I refused to go unless it was just us. I refused point blank to go to their wedding, that caused a massive fallout. The last weekend I stayed there, I was fourteen, I made him decide who was more important. Sheila piped up about how that they're married now and that she had a right to be apart of my life. I went to my room, left for home the next day and when he came to pick me up for our next weekend, I shut the door in his face."

Jesse was stunned. How could a man choose his recently wedded wife over his own daughter?

"My dad got a job as a professor here the year after he divorced my mom. Hi way of trying to build bridges and repair our relationship is to use his position here to score me a free college education. Are we closer than before? Yeah, but he can't buy my love. We meet for lunch sometimes, have chats. Embarrassingly, this is the most I've seen him in the last four years combined. After I stopped going to stay with him every month, I only saw him on my birthday and one day around Christmas. Since starting here, Sheila's tried to 'mother' me. She came on to campus and tried to force homemade lasagna and banana bread on me. It was hell having to stay there when I came back from the hospital, that's why I'm in this cramped room and not in my luxurious kingsize bed with an en-suite." She let out a pained laugh and her hand shot up to her ribs.

Jesse could't believe what she had told him. No wonder she was as closed and defensive. Dr. Mitchell was right when he said that a lot of her problems stem from what he put her through. He decided it was time to ask a question.

"What does your mom think about all this? The reconnecting with your dad, him getting you in to college and Sheila being... 'motherly'."

Beca had tears forming in her eyes, big tears that were trapped by her eyelashes and just waiting for a chance to escape. It took her a few minutes to pull herself together enough to respond.

"She um... she died. About six months in to my Junior year of high school she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, was given a few weeks at most. She died just before graduation that year. I was given the choice of moving in with dad and the step-monster and change schools or move in with my aunt and stay where I was. You can obviously guess which one I chose."

Jesse nodded but remained silent. He couldn't imagine the pain and grief Beca had been through. How can one girl go through so much and keep it all bottled up for so long?

No do you understand why I'm the way I am? I don't like being close to people in case they hurt me. I pushed you away because i was afraid to put myself in a vulnerable position and I'm so sorry."

Jesse moved from his end of the bed and carefully made his way to her side. He threw his arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head softly. He laid his cheek on the top of her hair after she placed it against him.

"I get it." He spoke in a low tone, not entirely sure what he was supposed to say. "I'm just glad that you've opened up to me so I can understand." He felt her nod against him. After a couple of minutes of silence, Jesse realised that his shirt was slightly damp, He thought it was best not to bring it up, though she moved not ten seconds later. Her eyes were free of tears by the time she faced him.

"I think I need to sleep, all this talking has taken it out of me." She gave him a faint smile. She didn't want him to leave but she didn't exactly have the courage to ask him to stay.

"Mmm, no wonder though, it's almost quarter to one in the morning. You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll manage."

"I can stay? Don't really fancy walking back to my dorm."

"Only if you want to. Would be nice to have someone here to fetch me breakfast in the morning." She grinned at him, elated that he'd asked to stay.

"I'll be your slave. As long as we get to watch more movies tomorrow and you show me your stash of midget porn."

"Deal."

Beca shimmied down so she was laying in a more comfortable, sleepable position. Jesse wasn't sure whether he should stay were he was or move to the floor. Thinking Beca would feel more comfortable sleeping alone, he made to get up but her small voice floated up to him.

"Don't bother moving. I'm comfortable and you'll just ruin it. Just reach behind you and turn off the light, lay your skinny butt down and sleep.

"Yes ma'am" Jesse did as he was told and laid down next to her. As darkness settled around them, her hand found his under the blankets and both occupants of the bed fell asleep within minutes of each other.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunlight was streaming through the small gaps of the partially closed blinds up at the window. According to Jesse's watch, it was almost nine in the morning and he had been awake for little over ten minutes. He needed to use the bathroom but hadn't wanted to move for fear of waking the person snuggled in to his chest. Beca had turned over in her sleep and pushed herself further up against him, somehow finding a way of using his arm as a pillow. He couldn't help but grin happily down at her; he liked how it felt to have her close to him. Jesse watched as Beca started to stir and became slightly worried as to how she would react finding herself pressed up against him. He needn't have worried though, because as she became aware of her surroundings, she looked up at him and gave him a sleep filled smile.

"Morning, weirdo."

"Morning, Becs. How you feeling?"

"Like crap, though your body heat is acting as a pretty decent pain reliever, muscles don't feel as achy. I knew there was a reason I kept you around." She yawn and tried to stretch before gasping in pain and clutching at her ribs. "Oww, spoke to soon. I take it back, you're of no use."

Jesse was slightly taken aback by the way she was acting. She seemed completely different to what she was before they talked about her childhood, she was a lot more open. Before last night, if he was to ask her how she was feeling, the only answer he would have gotten was 'I'm fine'. He liked this new, honest side to her.

"I think there's some pizza left, have some and then take your meds and the pain will ease. Then how about I go get us some decent breakfast?"

She gave him a look of mock disbelief. "Are you telling me that you _didn't_ eat all the pizza? Are you ill?"

"Oh ha ha, just eat the damn pizza. I'll even let you have the last juice pouch to wash it down with." He manoeuvred himself from her side and off the bed, leaving her laying there. He gave her a hand in sitting up before passing her one of the remaining slices of last night meal, a juice pouch and her meds.

"Thanks, Jess." She chewed the pizza slowly until it was finished before popping a couple of pills in to her mouth and washing them down with half the juice pouch. Beca handed the pouch out to Jesse and wiggled it until he grabbed it. "Finish it. It's too sweet for me this early in the morning."

"You never cease to amaze me..." He spoke so quietly that she didn't hear him. He was still getting used to finding out little bits about her, and discovering that she couldn't have overly sweet things in the morning made him smile at her.

"No need to grin like an idiot, I only gave you half a juice pouch."

She settled back against the pillows and sighed heavily.

"What's wrong?"

She looked at him then looked away again, a slight pink tinge spreading over her cheeks. "I need to have a shower... but I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to go about that."

He gave her a mischievous smile. "Well, I could always h-"

"No. No no. No way dude."

Jesse burst out laughing at her reaction. He wasn't being serious but the horrified look on her face made the suggestion all the more fun.

"Just kidding, Becs. Look, I have an idea but I'm not entirely sure you gonna like it but you might not have a choice."

She eyed him suspiciously. "What's the idea?"

"Not telling you because I know full well you'll say no. I'm gonna go get changed and then work on my idea, okay? I'll be back soon. You want anything in particular while I'm gone?"

"Bacon." She gave his question some more thought. "And pancakes. And if you're so sure I'll say no to your idea to help me shower, why won't you tell me?"

"Because it's a surprise! Now, try not to injure yourself by moving too much... I'll be back!"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Was that some kind of movie reference?"

"Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't." He slipped out the door and closed it behind him. Jesse headed towards his dorm and used the bathroom in his building. When he finally entered his room, he noticed that Benji was already out, most probably at some form if magic club seeing as Jesse knew he had no classes until that afternoon. Changing quickly, Jesse darted from the room and headed across campus towards the auditorium, hoping that the Bellas had an early rehearsal. As he got closer, he could hear the unmistakable sounds of Aubrey screaming at the girls, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

He creaked open the door just enough to slip through and tried to keep to the shadows so he didn't draw attention to himself. Every time Aubrey had her back to him, he tried to catch Chloe's eye. Only on his seventh try was he successful. He motioned for her to meet him outside and as he turned away to exit the hall, he heard her speak loudly.

"Professor Stevens? Sorry, Aubrey, I have to take this, it's important."

He darted outside and his round the corner before he could hear Aubrey's reply, though by the muffled yelling that was coming from within the building, he guessed that she wasn't too happy about Chloe leaving. No more than fifteen seconds after he'd closed the door, it reopened and the red-headed woman stepped out, turning her head to look for him.

"Jesse?"

He stepped out just enough so that Chloe would be able to see him. "Yeah, Chloe, over here."

"What's this all about? Is it Beca? Did you find her? Is she alright?" She spoke so fast he was barely able to understand what she was saying. He placed his each of his hands on either one of her shoulders in attempt to calm her down.

"Chloe. Breathe. Yes, I found Beca. She's... okay. Listen, I need – or rather Beca needs your help with something. But before I tell you, you've got to promise to keep your voice down in case the she-devil in there hears you and comes out to kills us both. Can you do that?"

She nodded and practically whispered to him. "What's wrong with her?"

As he told her about Beca's accident, she gasped loudly, her hands shot up to cover her mouth and her eyes filled with tears.

"And she wants a shower but can't on her own and obviously I can't help her so I was wondering if you could? She won't want all the girls knowing at the moment which is why I called you out but will you be able to leave rehearsals and come now?"

She wiped her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I can come now. Just let me go argue with Aubrey. God, why didn't Beca call one of us?"

"She doesn't have a phone anymore, it got destroyed by the car. She's waiting for a replacement to be delivered, but I don't think it'll be for another couple of days. I'm picking up some breakfast for us on my way back up there, I'll buy you some to as a thank you and then we can head there. How does that sound?" His voice had a slight pleading tone to it and it seemed to snap Chloe out of her daze.

"Thanks, I could do with something to eat, Aubrey made us meet at six this morning after finishing at gone eleven last night. We need Beca back, she made rehearsals bearable. Look, I'll go tell Aubrey that the Professor I was pretending to talk to needs me to correct an important essay or he'll fail me. Give me two minutes, and if I'm still not out, send in a search party. Do NOT come in without back-up."

She turned on her heel and march back towards the auditorium door and he suppressed a laugh as she did so. He followed a few steps behind so he would be able to hear what was going on. She gave him a nervous look before contorting her face in to one filled with anger, took a deep breath and threw open the door. As it slammed shut behind her, Jesse could hear the silence that fell in the room and the scraping of the odd chair being moved. He didn't have to wait long before the shouting started.

"WHAT THE HELL, CHLOE? YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE A REHEARSAL WHEN EVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT. DO YOU NOT WANT US TO WIN? YOU ARE JEPORDISING _EVERYTHING_!"

He cringed at the anger in Aubreys voice, she was definitely _not_ happy at Chloe leaving.

"DAMMIT AUBREY! I AM THIS CLOSE TO FAILING MY MAJOR BECAUSE OF THESE DAMN CONSTANT REHEARSALS. I NOW HAVE TO CORRECT THE ERRORS I MADE IN ONE OF MY IMPORTANT ESSAYS SO I DON'T FAIL."

"COME BACK HERE CHLOE!"

The door opened again with a bang and he darted back round the corner in case Aubrey followed Chloe out. Fortunately, Chloe came out alone and the two of them headed off along the quad to the campus cafe and ordered breakfast; bacon, pancakes and orange juice for Beca and Jesse and Coffee and waffles with syrup for Chloe. He was saving his to eat with Beca but by the time they got outside her door, Chloe had already finished hers and disposed of the trash along the way.

"Right, before we go in, I need to warn you that Beca's appearance isn't what you're used to, okay? And she doesn't know I've told you so you need to keep calm and not go over board because she's likely to kill me anyway."

Chloe nodded. "Don't worry, Jesse. It'll be fine."

"Okay." Jesse let himself back in to Beca's room and left the door open so Chloe could follow.

"Hey, weirdo, I was wondering where you'd got t-" The rest of her sentence was drowned out by a shriek and someone sobbing coming from the doorway. Chloe had followed Jesse in but as soon as she saw her friend on the bed she had broken down. She covered her mouth with her hands to try and muffle the sounds as Beca glared at Jesse.

"_This_ was your big idea?" She shot at him with a whisper.

"I thought it was a good idea... I can't help you so I though Chloe could... I just didn't expect her to be quite so sensitive. Maybe I should of asked Fat Amy." He gave her a puppy dog expression as he held out her breakfast and she relaxed her face before sighing.

"Trust me when I say Fat Amy would be worse." Beca took her breakfast from him. "Get her in here and close the door before I get people wondering whose drowning a cat."

Jesse gripped Chloe's shoulders and guided her further in to the room and helped her sit in Beca's desk chair before going back and closing the door.

"Oh, Beca..." A few stray sobs escaped Chloes lips as she attempted to speak.

"It's not as bad as it looks, Chlo. Just a few cuts and bruises, I'll be good in a few days. All this crying has ruined your make-up by the way."

That seemed to sober Chloe up briefly as she smiled, before taking one look at Beca's face and starting all over again. Beca groaned as she chewed on her bacon but Jesse stood by the door not knowing what to do or say. Beca seemed to notice and motioned for him to sit down.

"Just sit down, Jesse. She'll be doing that for a while. You still think asking her to help was a good idea?" She took another bite of bacon and raised an eyebrow at him.

He shrugged. "Not entirely, but it needed doing and I honestly thought you'd rather Chloe than anyone seeing as you seem to be closest to her."

"Well, she's already seen me naked..."

Jesse choked on his food. The sound of him coughing made both Beca and Chloe stare at him. Beca was trying not to laugh but Chloe didn't know what was going on, though she seemed to have come to terms with her friends injuries enough to be able to look at her without breaking down in to tears. She searched her bag for a pack of tissues and dabbed at her eyes, grimacing when she noticed the thick smudges of mascara mixed with tears.

"Beca... how you feeling?" She asked in all seriousness and smiled at Beca, who couldn't take Chloe seriously when black lines running all down her face.

"I'm alright, just a little achy and in need of a shower, though now I'm not the only one."

Her comment made Chloe dive back in to her bag and retrieve her compact. "Argh! That's what you get for wearing so much make-up. You wouldn't believe how much concealer I had to put on this morning to hide the bags under my eyes. I swear if they end up being a permanent feature of my face, Aubrey will pay."

Beca gave her a sly smirk as bit back in to her breakfast.

"Don't you give me that look, Beca, you got away lightly. You know she's making us meet at six every morning, during lunch and then again when we've all finished classes for the day?"

"Should of quit when you had the chance."

"I know, but this is the last year that I'll be in the Bellas and I want to win... just.. ugh."

"Has anyone tried to put Aubrey in her place? I mean, can't you guys team up against her?" Jesse had finally recovered from his coughing attack. Both girls rounded on him and gave him disbelieving looks.

"Uh, dude, why do you think I quit? When I did the improvisation at the semis and she beat me down about it, I knew she wasn't going to change her play. Our set was boring; the audience and the judges were practically falling asleep and to be honest, I'm not a hundred percent sure that we would have gotten through anyway. Aubreys never going to listen until she has the pitch pipe taken away from her, and the way things are going, that wont be until she graduates."

"Beca's right." Chloe went back to looking at herself in her small mirror while talking. "Aubrey wont change; I've been in the Bellas with her every year and the whole 'never change, stick to the same set' was drilled in to us, only Aubrey took it to heart. Beca was the only one that ever really challenged her on it and we sort of followed, though now no one speaks up at all... we're all too tired to argue."

"Seriously? Jeez, I knew things were bad from you guys but not that bad. Bumper always goes on about Amy saying this and Amy saying that but we never... really... why are you two looking at me like that?"

Both Beca and Chloe were both staring at Jesse wide eyed with gaping mouths. They looked briefly at each other before turning back to Jesse. "What _exactly_ do you mean by that?"

"By what?" Jesse was really confused.

"By 'Bumper always goes on about Amy saying this and Amy saying that'?" Jesse flinched slightly under the force of her glare.

"Um... I... huh... Amy comes round... to the Treble house like... all the time. She and Bumper... er... go to his room and - er... are in there for a while. If you know what I mean? I thought you guys all knew!"

Beca and Chloe stared at him in disbelief. "OH MY GOD!" They both screamed together before bursting out laughing, Beca clutching her body in pain as she did so. Jesse stared at them for a full five minutes before Chloe pulled herself together enough to speak. "Aubrey - is - going - to - kill - her!"

"Why?"

Beca wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Because there's a rule saying that no Bella can be 'Treble boned'. You get with a Treble and you're out. Oooh, Amy is gonna pay."

"Really? That's an actual thing? I thought Donald was lying about that."

"No, no, it's real alright. Aubrey banished a girl after aca-anitiation night for it."

Jesse stared at the two girls before turning back to his breakfast and muttering a simple "jeez" to himself. Having noticed Beca had finished her own food, Chloe gave her a bright grin and inched forward in her chair.

"So, ready to have a shower?"

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_**Major apologies for the delay guys! **_

_**Sorry to end it there but I thought it would be better to split what could have easily turned in to another long chapter in to two smaller ones. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Please review, love hearing what you guys think!**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**So, it's been like... two months? Sorry about that. I've actually had till the end of the first paragraph written since I last posted but it's only been the last few days that I've gone back and worked on it. I post as I write - not the best thing to do but I'm far too impatient to write the entire thing and then post it chapter by chapter. This fic currently has 104 followers as of chapter 4! Thank you so much for those of you that have followed, favourited and reviewed, it really means a lot. And now for chapter 5!**_

* * *

"Come on, Beca, you can't shower with your shirt on!"

Chloe stood in one of the shower cubicles with Beca leaning against the wall opposite. Chloe had originally wanted her to use the handicapped shower room on the first floor so she could sit down but Beca had refused. It had taken a good half an hour to convince Beca to actually let the redhead help her remove her sweatpants and panties but that was it, her overlarge tee long enough to cover her modesty. The vulnerable woman knew full well that she couldn't shower with her shirt on but that didn't stop her from trying. She had accepted that her friend would once again be seeing her naked, she wasn't entirely thrilled about it but that wasn't her problem. No, her problem was the bruises that lined her body. She had seen Chloes face when she'd finally relented and she watched as the womans eyes filled once again with tears at the sight of the bruises along Beca's thighs and hips. Beca knew her torso was much worse and she didn't think she could take Chloes reaction once she saw it.

"I know, Chlo. Listen... just remember, the bruises look much worse than they are okay? Please don't get upset." Beca begged before she moved the arm she had wrapped round her and allowed Chloe to step forward and help to pull the shirt over her head. She felt Chloe pause with her movements and Beca knew the redhead was trying to keep her emotions in check. As soon as the shirt was pulled away to expose her breasts, she quickly wrapped her arm back around her, hoping to keep some dignity but it did nothing to hide the thick, deep, almost black, purple patch of skin around the area of her ribcage.

"Holy shit. _Holy shit_." Chloe tried to whisper but the words echoed around the small space and tiled walls, making Beca cringe. There were tears threatening to fall from the redheads eyes but she wasn't allowing them to. She wiped them away with the back of her hand before taking a few deep breaths and giving Beca a small smile. "Let's get this over with and get you back to your room."

Beca let out a sigh of relief that Chloe wasn't going to make any comments - or break down completely and ball her eyes out. She moved herself so she was directly in line for when the water started spraying. She gave Chloe a nod to signal that she was ready and braced herself against what she knew would be a freezing cold jet of water before it heated up. It hit her in the face and she jerked backwards, letting out a moan of pain as she did so. Chloe was there instantly, holding her upper arms and rubbing soothing circles in to them. The shower started to heat up and Chloe helped Beca move back under the spray, the temperature and pressure from the water helping to ease some of the stiffness in her muscles. Chloe grabbed the shower gel from Becas shower caddy and squirted some on to the wash cloth she'd also taken.

"I'm gonna be as gentle as I can, Beca. Just a quick wipe down, okay? Then I'll do your hair."

Beca nodded and Chloe started to slowly massage the gel in to her skin. To be perfectly honest, as awkward and embarrassed as she felt, Beca would be lying if she said it didn't feel nice. This was definitely a different experience to the first time she found herself in the shower with her red headed friend. She couldn't help but smile and join in when Chloe started humming 'Titanium', earning herself a knowing one in return. The older woman spent a good twenty minutes slowly cleaning away five days worth of dirt, taking extra care when it came to Becas hips and ribs, knowing that too much pressure would cause pain. If Beca hadn't of been standing, she was certain that, once Chloe moved on to washing her hair, she would have fallen asleep right there and then - the sensation was so comforting.

"We're all done, Beca. I'm gonna help you dry off now, okay?" Chloe waited for a nod of approval before grabbing Becas large, black fluffy towel and wrapped it round the small woman. They moved to a dry area and twenty minutes later, Beca was dressed is a fresh pair of sweats, another over-large tee and slippers. Chloe, who had stripped down to her own bra and panties, shimmied out of the soaked things and dressed back into her jeans and shirt, adding the discarded items to the bag with Becas. The two hooked arms and back out towards the corridor where Jesse was waiting for them.

"Well, someone looks clean." He grinned at the two women and moved forward to Becas side, looping his arm with hers.

"I'll be back out in a minute, just gonna get your things." Chloe left them standing outside the door and ventured back in.

"How was it in there?" Jesse's amused expression and raised eyebrows made Beca roll her eyes.

"Wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I mean... she saw _everything_, but she didn't comment and she made sure I knew what she was doing at all times. You know, every time she _touched _me._"_ She smirked when she saw Jesses eyes widen when she said 'everything' and 'touched', knowing exactly what he would be thinking.

Jesse swallowed. "You, Ms Mitchell, are an evil woman."

"Thank you." She grinned. "I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. I discovered something while we were in there."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I like it when someone runs their fingers through my hair, it's strangely relaxing."

He took note of this but didn't comment, just nodded. He was still getting over the fact that two girls had just been naked in the shower together... every guys dream. He was snapped out of his thoughts by the return of Chloe, who was staring at the two with a grin on her face.

"Well, don't you two look adorable? Shall we go?" She set off down the hallway towards Becas dorm. Jesse and Beca shared a look and Beca rolled her eyes again before the two set off at a slow pace after the redhead.

By the time Beca and Jesse reached her dorm, Chloe had already let her self in a rearranged the mountain of pillows on the bed. She was busy clearing up from breakfast when they entered and moved aside so Jesse could help Beca on to the bed. Beca heard Chloes phone chime on the desk and saw her grimace when she read her text.

"I'm guessing Aubreys not too happy with you?"

Chloe shook her head and sighed. "No, she wants to kill me. She ran in to Professor Stevens and now she knows I was lying about where I went. I have to tell her something, but she's not gonna take it well. Jesse, don't you have classes or Trebles rehearsals today?"

"Trebles isn't until tonight and I don't have lectures every other Thursday. But that does remind me that I need to talk to Luke, tell him about you, Becs." Beca grumbled something about not liking people fussing and to just get it over with. He and Chloe shared a grin before he pulled his cell out and dialled Lukes number.

"_Hello?_" Luke and his British accent sounded very frustrated today.

"Hey, it's Jesse. Listen, I found Beca... but she's not gonna be able to work for a couple of weeks."

"_What! She can't just decide to take time off without discussing it with-_"

Jesse cut him off. "She was in an accident, can't do any heavy lifting." Silence filled the line for a few seconds.

"_She okay?_" Lukes voice was surprisingly filled with concern.

"Yeah, just needs some time to heal, should be good in a couple of weeks. Do you mind if I take the next few shifts off to?"

A sigh is what he was responded with. "_Fine. But you start back on Monday. Tell Beca to get better soon, I want her to take over the booth of a weekend as soon as she's ready._" He hung up before Jesse could respond.

"Well? Do I still have a job to go back to?" There was a pleading look in her eyes, the job meant a lot to her.

"Yeah, you do, and he wants to take over the booth of a weekend when you're back." He grinned at her, as did Chloe.

"Are you serious? Yes!"

They all laughed at Becas reaction, even if the injured woman regretted doing so almost instantly. Chloe reached out to help Beca move in to a more comfortable position while Jesse looked round for her meds. Beca shook her head to him when he held them out to her.

"It's too soon to take them, plus the pain isn't as bad as you both think." She still smiled up at them both in thanks.

Both nodded and while Chloe gathered her things, Jesse made himself comfortable on the bed next to Beca, laptop once again settled across their legs.

"I'm gonna head off, leave you two to it. Don't make any plans for dinner though, Beca, I'll be back for when Jesses at rehearsals."

"I don't need a babysitter!" Jesse chuckled at her.

"I know, but I want to. I'll bring food and maybe we can talk?" Beca thought about it and after an encouraging nod from Jesse, she nodded. "Great! See you later, Beca. Jesse, it's been a pleasure."

Jesse saluted her as she left, leaving the two of them on the bed. He let Beca scroll through the movie list on Netflix while he thought about the last day, and everything she had told him. He was happy that she had finally opened up to him, but he hated the fact that it took an argument, over a month of not talking and her being hit by a car to do so. He understood why she was such a closed off person - her dad really had been the root of her problems. As Jesse sat there, arm pressed up against hers, he couldn't help but wonder about how exactly she was hit by a car. She had said that she had passed out, but why had she? Was she ill prior to the accident? He wanted to know but he didn't want to ask, feeling that he would be pushing his luck. He was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn't realise Beca had started talking to him.

"Earth to Nerd... Jesse?"

"Hmm?"

"I can't find anything remotely interesting. You okay? You seemed a little out of it." She was looking at him, her eyes scanning his face, assessing whether or not he was alright.

"Just thinking... about the accident."

"What about it?"

"You said you passed out in front of the car." He finally looked up at her, a frown on his face. "I didn't wanna push you in to talking about it but -"

"You wanna know why." She sighed but smiled slightly at him.

"Yeah, kinda. I mean, people usually pass out when they're ill. Where - _are _\- you ill?" He reached over and closed the laptop and moved it off their legs and on to the bed.

Beca settled herself further down against the pillows, making herself a little more comfortable and taking some of the pressure off her ribs. Jesse followed until they were laying next to each other. Beca once again entwined their fingers and he gently rubbed circles in top of her hand.

"I'm not and wasn't ill exactly. I had low blood sugar. That, mixed with exhaustion caused me to pass out... and it just happened to happen in the path of an oncoming car." She gave him a small smile but he just frowned at her.

"You have low blood sugar?"

"Only when I don't eat for about five days."

Jesse sat up so fast he almost flipped Beca off the bed, seeing as their hands were still attached. She yelled out and balled her fist against her ribs as Jesse pulled her back in to place.

"Dude! What the hell?" She was trying to breath through the pain now radiating through her ribs. She shot him a look and he cowered slightly under her glare.

"Shit. Beca, I'm so sorry. You... um... okay?" He removed his hands from her when she narrowed her eyes at him.

"What do you think?"

"I'll take that as a no. I'm sorry... you just took me by surprise." He stayed sitting while she laid herself back down, closing her eyes and taking steadying breaths to even out the pain. "Why the hell didn't you eat for _five_ days?"

She sighed. "I forgot to."

"How is that even possible?"

She shrugged and opened her eyes and stared at him. "I also forgot to sleep. I don't know how I lasted so long but neither were at the forefront of my mind at the time, I had more important things to deal with."

Jesse couldn't believe her. How could someone go that long without eating or sleeping and claimed to have _forgotten _because it wasn't _important_.

"I revise my question; how the hell did you _forget_ to eat and sleep for five days?"

She thought about it for a minute before pulling herself, with some difficulty, up in to a seated position, shrugging off his offer of help. He frowned at her and looked slightly hurt but her slightly apologetic look changed that. She was silent for another minute before she started opening up again.

"I didn't forget on purpose. I don't have an eating disorder or insomnia or anything, I actually just forgot where I was so busy. During Spring Break, I was in charge of the radio station, working the booth and between that and working on my mixes, I neglected to do any college work." Jesse nodded in understanding, who actually does keep up with work over Spring Break? "When the break was over, I continued to miss the usual lectures here and there, that wasn't going to change but I started to miss more and more of them. I was either helping the girls out and forgetting that I wasn't actually one of them any more and that I didn't have to do anything but they begged me and I said yes, I mean, they're my friends. I'd already fucked things up with you, I wasn't about to fuck things up with any one else. Luke started putting more responsibilities on me at the station, not booth work, but he asked me to do a lot more than just stacking CDs, with took up more time than I thought it would, and I was still behind on my essays. About two weeks ago, I got an official warning from the Dean. He said that if I didn't find a way to catch up with everything, start taking my time at Barden seriously and attending my classes, he would kick me out and revoke the no tuition deal he had with my dad., meaning that I'd have to come up with the money or be in debt for a degree I'd never actually get."

It was at this point that Jesse remembered Chloe telling him about how Beca's dad was pushing her, was this why?

"I'm guessing that didn't go down well?"

She shook her head. "No it did not. He came storming in here that day, having been called in to a meeting with the Dean to discuss me. We both screamed at each other, and he once again told me that he wouldn't be helping me move to LA if I didn't buck up my ideas. I said that I would try harder, but it would take a while, considering I did actually have a lot to do. He fixed it with my Professors and they gave me some extra notes on the classes I'd missed, extended deadlines and such but they needed to see _some _improvement to know that giving me the extras would be worth it. I think in the space of the first three days after getting the warning, I'd written four essays and attended every lecture, even the ones I didn't usually go to."

"But?"

"How did you know there's a but?"

"There's always a but." He smirked at her and she finally gave him a smile.

"It wasn't enough for my dad. I'd done more work in those three days than I had in four months but he still said I wasn't doing enough. Yes, I still had about six essays and four assignments to complete but I had really tried to make an effort. He told me that I had until the beginning of the next week to get it done or that was it, and he'd never help me."

Jesse was starting to really dislik Dr Mitchell. He could understand him not being happy with her being given a warning but she had tried to catch up. Considering just how much work she had to do, giving her till the next week to do it all was a little harsh. Her Professors had given her more time, why couldn't her own dad?

"To top it all, he started saying that he was going to invite Sheila to our weekly lunch meet-up."

"No way? After everything, he _still _tried to force that bitch on you?"

Beca grinned at him. A big goofy grin, and it was all because he'd called Sheila a bitch.

"Yes, that's exactly what he did. I didn't take it well. We had another argument which ended in me walking away from him and locking myself in here. I spent the next five days either in here working on my essays, in my classes or at the station. I didn't even see the girls because Aubrey started making them rehearse through lunch so, looking back now, I've realised that I was never actually around people when they were eating."

"I'm still not seeing how you actually forgot to eat or sleep, Beca. I get that you were working to catch up on stuff but I don't see how you could just forget." He moved back next to her, not daring to touch her again but placed his hand next to hers on the bed.

"Because I was so invested in actually getting everything done that, as hard as it is to believe, it just slipped my mind. I mean, I'd be working at my laptop one minute and rushing to class the next, then I'd be straight back here or to another class, then I'd have to go to the station and then have to come back and finish something else. There was no time to stop and think about anything other than finishing what I needed to do. The first time that it actually occurred to me that I hadn't eaten or slept in a while was when the doctor at the hospital was asking me all these questions."

"Wow." Jesse turned his head to stare at Beca. No wonder she passed out. The longest he'd ever gone without eating was two days when he was fifteen and he had a pretty bad case of the flu. "I can see now. With all the not taking care of yourself properly, did you at least manage to finish everything?"

"Yes, thank God. I was up to date with everything, though now that I've been out of action for nearly a week, I don't even want to think about how much I've missed."

Jesse smiled sympathetically at her, she'd worked so hard to get to where she needed to be, and as soon as she had done, it was all ruined by a stupid accident. He was sure that, now with a legitimate reason for not attending her classes, her Professors would be more than happy to give her a little extra help. He was just about to speak again when there was a knock at the door, the familiar voice of Beca's dad floating through.

"Beca, can I come in?"

Beca groaned quietly and laid her head on Jesse's shoulder. He smirked at her, even though he knew she couldn't see him. He pressed his lips lightly to the top of her head before carefully jumping up and throwing open the door.

"Ah, Jesse, sorry to interrupt you two... I didn't know you'd be here." The older man was embarrassed, not knowing what he was disturbing.

"It's fine, dad." Jesse opened the door a little wider, giving Dr Mitchell space to step round him and in to the room. Jesse closed the door and took a seat at the end of Becas bed, leaving the desk chair free for her dad. "We were just talking, what's up?"

"Well, I was supposed to come and see you last night but I thought you two could do with the time alone, you know, to talk." He still looked slightly uncomfortable, and Beca couldn't help but smirk and Jesse. He held up a box before handing it to his daughter. "Here, this arrived this morning. I spoke to your provider, you'll still have the same number but they said if you still have the sim card from your previous cell, as long as it's the same model, she should be able to use that."

Becas face lit up like a kids on Christmas morning. Her phone had always been important to her, and not having it for a few days was a painful experience. "Thanks dad. Don't worry about not coming round last night, you're right, we were doing a lot of talking."

She smiled at Jesse and he did so back. Dr Mitchell looked between the two of them, knowing that they had at least sorted through some of what they needed to.

"I also have these." He handed over a small bag containing half a dozen home made DVDs.

"Um... thanks?" She shot him a confused look, to which he chuckled.

"I had your Professors film the classes you would be missing, so you could at least watch over them and still have some idea what was happening. There's an assignment of two at the end of them but nothing too strenuous." She raised an eyebrow at him but didn't comment, not wanting to start another argument in front of Jesse.

"Thanks. Shouldn't you be teaching a class right about now?"

He looked at his watch and groaned. "Yes, but I wanted to see you and see how you are."

"I'm fine, Jesse's been helping me and so did Chloe. She's coming back later when he goes to rehearsals tonight. I honestly think that, between the two of them, they're not going to leave me on my own again."

She grinned over at Jesse again as he nodded. Dr Mitchell chuckled and made to stand. Just before he reached the dorm room door, he glanced over to Kimmy Jins bed and remembered something.

"Oh, Beca, I forgot to tell you, your room mate is making a late transfer to a college in Korea. She'll be all moved out by the end of the week so you'll have the room to yourself for the rest of the year. Bye Beca, Jesse." And with that he left, closing the door behind him.

"Well, at least from next week we can watch movies without fear of her barging in and ruining the mood."


	6. Chapter 6

_**Hey guys! Hope you like this chapter. Question - is this fic going at a good pace or is it too slow? **_

_**To Dobby66 - Your English is brilliant (a hell of a lot better than some of the ENGLISH people I went to school with :) )**_

* * *

Chloe smirked at the two on the bed as she pulled the door closed behind her. No matter what she said about her and Jesse just being friends, it was evident to the senior that Beca had the kind of feelings for him that ran a lot deeper than friendship. There was no doubt in her mind that, given time, the two would finally give in to temptation and get it on, and Chloe sure as hell wouldn't let anyone stand in their way. She'd only spent the morning with the two but she had been given a very big insight to their relationship, even it they were still rebuilding it after not talking for nearly two months. She was glad they'd made up; every time she saw Jesse around campus, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him, he hadn't done anything deserving to be treated the way he was. But, on the other hand, she knew that Becas defences had been in motion far longer, causing her to be unable to take them down.

Chloe stayed outside Beca's room, ear pressed up against the door, waiting to hear if anything went on. She wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or relieved to find that they were simply talking. She couldn't hear the conversation clearly but she heard enough to know that Beca was opening up to him about the accident, seemingly not holding anything back. She couldn't lie, she was a little bit jealous at the fact that she was opening up to Jesse and not her and the girls, all of whom had tried over and over again to find out more about their friend. Chloe mentally scolded herself for eavesdropping on their conversation, reasoning that Beca would divulge all this to her at a later date, possibly even that night if she was lucky. That particular thought snapped her back to the present, grimacing at the reason she had left Beca and Jesse in the first place. Pulling out her phone and moving further down the corridor, she dialled Aubreys number and waited for the woman to answer.

"_This is Aubrey Posen._"

Chloe laughed silently at her friend, she'd answered the phone the same way since their first year at Barden.

"Hey, Aubrey... we need to talk. Are you free?" Silence filled the line for a few seconds. "Aubrey?"

"_No. Chloe. I'm not free. I have an appointment to attend to and classes after that. I've already informed the rest of the girls that there will be no Bella rehearsals tonight. We'll regroup tomorrow at six thirty am and you and I will have a discussion about the lie you told today. Goodbye._"

Chloe sighed and ended the call. She knew lying to Aubrey that morning wasn't the smartest thing to do but what choice did she have? Aubrey would never have let her come and see Beca, that would have been a betrayal. She would need to think long and hard about what she would tell her friend. Should she tell her the whole truth and just hope that Aubrey would be sympathetic? Or should she skim over the details and promise never to do it again? She stood there wondering what to do for a few minutes before the realisation that all the Bellas would be free that night dawned on her. Unlocking her cell, she started a group message and texted all the Bellas, with the exception of Aubrey.

_**Emergency Bella meeting, auditorium in ten minutes. DO NOT LET AUBREY KNOW!**_

She had told Beca not to make plans for dinner as she would be coming back, only now, if all went well, she wouldn't be arriving alone. Chloe set off in the direction of the auditorium, keeping an eye out for Aubrey, just in case she was lurking somewhere in the shadows. None of the other girls were there when she arrived, though she guessed they would be arriving soon. Exactly ten minutes after she'd sent the mass text, all the girls entered, clearly having been together prior to coming. They all took seats in the front row of the stands while Chloe stood in front of them.

"Does this technically count as a Bella meeting if one, not everyone is here, and two, you not being our leader is conducting it?" Fat Amy asked, eyebrow raised at the red headed woman in front of her.

"Yes, because we are Bellas and it's regarding one of our own... well, one of our former Bellas."

"This is about Beca?" Cynthia Rose looked expectantly at Chloe. "Are we going to work on a plan to try and convince Aubrey to and let her back in? Because I'm down with that." There were murmurs of agreement amongst the girls.

"Not today, Cynthia Rose, but we can do that another time. As you know, I left this morning because I had to go a see a Professor about an essay." There were a few nods from the women in front of her. "What you don't know is that - I lied."

"You what!" The collective cry threatened to damage her hearing as the girls started to throw insults at her. Fat Amy was threatening to release the kracken on her for leaving them on their own with Aubrey.

"I don't think any of you noticed that Jesse came back here this morning, and he's the reason I left. He found where Beca was last night and needed my help with something earlier but before I tell you guys anything you all have to promise not to mention a single word to Aubrey if you see her until I've had a chance to talk to her myself. Deal?"

Amy nodded instantly, knowing that something was wrong. The others were a little more reluctant to do so. Unlike Fat Amy, they didn't know half the story of what went wrong between Beca and Jesse and they didn't trust the fact that he was involved with Chloe disappearing earlier, and he was a Treble. Eventually though they all agreed to keep quiet.

"Alright, so, don't be alarmed but Beca was in an accident a few days ago." All the girls gasped and instantly started firing questions at her. She held up her hands, signalling them to stop but it was no use. In the end, she had to use her BU rape whistle to quieten everyone down. "She's okay, battered and bruised but otherwise fine. Jesse needed me to help her in the shower, which is why I left rehearsal this morning. She can't really do much for herself, what with her ribs and having to walk with a crutch, so I said that I would bring her dinner and stay with her for a while tonight while Jesse goes to Treble practise."

"Is Jesse with her now?" Fat Amy asked while giving Chloe a look that said 'have they worked things out?'

Chloe nodded, answering both Amys spoken and hidden questions with the same answer. "Yeah. Aubrey told me that we have no rehearsals until tomorrow morning so I was thinking we could _all_ go round there and spend some time with her. It's been what, nearly two weeks since we've had the chance to spend some time with her?"

The girls murmured their agreement until Jessica spoke up. "Me, Ashley and Denise can't. We've already made arrangements with our study group and we can't change plans this late in the day... and we have to leave now for class."

Chloe nodded. "That's fine. See you guys tomorrow. Are the rest of you in?" She glanced round at the remaining girls as the three women left the auditorium.

"Hell yeah, I'm in. I wanna see shawshank." Fat Amy jumped up and stood beside Chloe.

"Can we bring snacks and make a night of it?"

"Sure."

"Then I'm in. I've wanted to have a girls night for ages, we just never seem to have the time." Stacie joined them and looked over to the two remaining on the seats. Cynthia Rose and Lily looked to each other and nodded.

"We're in."

"Excellent." Chloe actually started to bounce on the balls of her feet and clap excitedly. "I'm not sure what time Jesse will be leaving but if I'm right in thinking, he should be heading out about seven. Bring snacks, drinks and we'll all pitch in for dinner? Meet outside Baker Hall for six fifty?"

They all nodded and headed out, each one of them looking forward to later that night.

* * *

After her dad left, Beca cheered with glee at the thought of Kimmy Jin no longer being her room mate... until Jesse reminded her that she could possibly get someone much worse. She shuddered at the thought until it occurred to her that Barden didn't allow people to transfer _in_ this late in to the year, which once again caused her to cheer. She would have the entire room all to herself, no one walking in and ruining moments, like Kimmy Jin had done many times before. She would be able to have her own friends there without having to worry about annoying her room mate. It would only be until the end of the school year and then she would be stuck with someone else... if, that is, she decided to return for her second year at all.

As things currently stood, none of the girls, or Jesse, knew of her impending plans to ditch college at the end of the academic year. She didn't tell any of them because she didn't want to give them the chance of talking her out of it. Now though... she wasn't all that convinced that she could go through with it anymore. Up until yesterday she was dead set on leaving, having thought there was no going back with Jesse. They girls meant a lot to her but Jesse... he was something else. He meant more to her than she could ever have imagined yet she honestly thought it had taken her far too long to figure it out. She came to the conclusion that while she figured that she could keep in touch with the girls, meet up during their breaks, have midnight skype calls with them, she didn't feel she could do that with Jesse. Their two months of not talking and hurt more than she could ever have imagined. Now that they were on their way back to being close like they were before, she didn't think she could leave, knowing that she wouldn't see or be near him every day.

The feeling was strange to Beca. Never before had she considered her relationship with others when making a decision. She always thought about herself first and worried about others later. She put it down to having to raise herself in her early teens, after her mom slipped in to her depression. It was weird, having friends to think about, it was something she had never really had to do before. She kept herself to herself as much as she could all through middle school, not wanting to get close to anyone, fearing they would hurt her like her dad had. In high school she had done much of the same, refused to even date. She allowed herself to get 'caught up in the moment' with a few guys she met in the clubs she'd managed to get in to, but she always managed to slip away the next morning before the guy realised he didn't even know her name.

After talking with her dad, making an effort to repair their damaged relationship and meeting Jesse and the girls, Beca had realised that she didn't want to be that girl anymore. She still had her walls, and they probably would never come down fully but since starting at Barden, Beca had started to learn how to let people in.

Beca and Jesse were once again sat side by side on her bed, Jesse having taken over browsing through Netflix. She had once told Jesse that she didn't like movies because they were predictable, but that wasn't strictly the whole truth. She used to love movies, she loved watching the families in them getting their happy ending, but after her parents split up, she couldn't bring herself to watch them anymore. The truth was that she became jealous of the fictional families, how they always seemed to work things out and live together happily ever after. She couldn't have that, and that's why she stopped watching. She thought about how open she'd already been with her a capella singing, movie loving nerd friend and decided that he deserved to know the truth.

She leaned forward, ignoring the discomfort of her ribs and pulled the laptop closed. Jesse stuttered garbled speech to her, saying something about having just found the perfect film but the look on Becas face stopping him from continuing.

"Beca, what's wrong?"

"I want you to understand why I don't like movies."

Jesse raised an eyebrow. "You said it was because they were all predictable."

She nodded. "That's part of the reason. The truth is... I used to love movies."

Jesse gasped in shock. Beca rolled her eyes but in all honestly, she couldn't tell whether he was faking his surprise it was an actual genuine reaction.

"Are you _serious_?" It came out just short of a shriek, something that made her hold back a laugh.

"Dixie chicks serious." Jesse gave her a look that clearly showed he had no idea what that meant. "Never mind. But yes, I'm being serious. I used to love watching movies, Friday nights were movie nights in the Mitchell household."

"Why did you stop?"

"We'd watch them as a family. Then dad left and my mom would cry halfway through the film and leave me to watch it on my own. We only ever watched the happy ones and... I was so jealous of the families in them getting their happy endings and I wasn't. My dad didn't come back to us. My parents didn't get back together because he realised he made a huge mistake and my mom forgave him. You have no idea how much I wanted that to happen, but it never did, the movies lied. I was young enough to believe that that's how it was supposed to happen." She turned to him and he nodded his understanding, before putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her to him gently. "I stopped watching them in the end. Avoided being in the same room if one was playing. It didn't matter what genre it was, I point blank refused to."

"If you hated them so much, why did he agree to watch them with me?"

"Because," she turned to face him, pulling herself away from his side. "You were annoyingly persistent and I kinda thought that if I agreed to watch one with you then you'd he happy enough to let that be it. I thought wrong."

Jesse grinned. "I always get my way, Ms Mitchell. Occupational hazard - I'm the youngest child."

Now it was Becas turn to be shocked. "You're the youngest?" She knew he had at least one brother and one sister, but she didn't know he was the youngest. "That explains a lot."

"It really does. There's a whole ten years between me and my sister, and twelve between me and my brother. They were so close in age, they had this bond with each other that they didn't have with me and my parents sort of compensated for that by giving me whatever I wanted - to an extent." Jesse grinned as his brain went through the happy memories of his childhood. "My love of movies comes from bedtime believe it or not. My parents would put me in bed early some nights, put a movie on and spend a couple of hours in the evenings with my brother and sister. I loved it. I realise now that I was actually going to sleep at the usual time but when I was younger, I believed that I was getting to stay up way past bedtime."

Beca smiled at him, a true smile. It was nice hearing about his childhood, they'd spoken so much about hers in the last day that it was good to hear some happy memories.

"I bet you were a spoilt brat."

"Yep."

They both fell in to an easy silence and Jesse's arm was back round her shoulders, with her leaning against him again. Beca reached forward and reopened the laptop, checking to see what movie Jesse had chosen.

"Harry Potter, seriously?"

"The Harry Potter series is a must for our generation. I grew up reading the books and watched all the movies at least twice on the big screen when they came out. You can't go your whole life not watching them." Jesse loaded up his chosen film and positioned the laptop across their legs again.

"You said _all_ the movies. How many exactly is there?"

"Eight." He could see her reflection in the screen before them and laughed as she groaned.

"Come on! How can there be eight movies in one franchise?"

"Because there's seven books, the final was split in to two films. Now hush, small one."

Beca used all her strength and poked him in the side, making him yell out in shock rather than pain. Jesse pressed play and the both fell back in to silence. Beca, to Jesse's surprise, managed to stay awake for the most of the duration of the first film, until it hit fifteen minutes before the end. Wanting her to get the rest she needed, Jesse didn't bother waking her, he just checked she was comfortable before clicking on to the second film. Beca woke half way through, having slept for over an hour and took the pills she needed before watching the remainder of the film, shooting a hundred questions at Jesse because she didn't know what was going on.

It was nearing seven by the time the film finally finished. Jesse knew he had to leave soon and head to the Treble house for rehearsals but he didn't want to leave Beca. Chloe said she would be back, and he knew Beca would be fine but that didn't stop him worrying.

"Hey, Becs, I've gotta leave. You gonna be okay?"

A brief look of sadness passed over her face. She didn't want him to leave, she's gotten used to him being there, even if it had only been two days. She wanted him to stay but knew he had to go, and she would have company in the form of her bubbly red-headed friend.

"I'll have Chloe. Though at some point I'll probably let you know I'm suffocating from her need to 'mother' me."

"I can come back later, if you want?"

Beca was spared from answering by a series of knocks on her door. Both of them looked at each other; Beca had her eyes narrowed but Jesse was amused. She sighed at the knocks continued and gestured for him to open it, which he did, only to find not just Chloe, but most of the Bellas.


	7. Chapter 7

_**I am so sorry for the wait. Too much has been going on but here's chapter 7. I have no idea where I was really going by the end of this but I have a 13 chapter limit for this story and I'm determined not to deviate... Read, Review, Enjoy!**_

* * *

Jesse was standing face to face with more than half the Bellas, each carrying an armful of snacks and three of whom were wearing such looks of disgust at him, he was forced to recoil under their gaze. Fat Amy was smiling gently at him but Chloe was grinning outwardly in his direction, and he found himself grinning back. There was a low groan behind him and when he turned to look at Beca, he found she had slapped her forehead in to her hands and was mumbling some thing about killing Chloe. It took all his inner strength not to burst in to a fit of laughter as he turned back to the group of women at the door. All the girls apart from Chloe had finally looked over at Beca, and now had looks for pure horror on their faces at the sight of her injuries. They were, to their credit, holding it together remarkably well.

"Hi, Jesse." Chloe led the girls in to the room and they all turned expectantly to him. "Bye, Jesse."

"And I'm out. Call you later, Becs?" He picked up his backpack, stuffing his laptop back in to it as he made his way back to the door. Beca nodded.

"Yeah. Bye, Jesse and... thanks, for everything." She smiled another of her true smiles and he nodded before smiling back. He wanted to go over, give her a hug and whisper that he'd come back and rescue her if she needed it but he figured it wouldn't go down well with some of the others in the room.

"Always a pleasure, Chloe. Girls." He nodded to them, earning himself another few glares before leaving, closing the door with a soft 'snap' behind him.

Beca watched him go and instantly missed his presence. She'd never had that feeling before, and it shocked her. Beca didn't know how to deal with the sudden feeling. Chloe, who had seen the expression on her friends face change, sat on the edge of the bed and placed her hand on Beca's shoulder, startling her. Chloe smiled and was about to say something but Stacie's voice rang out around the room.

"Damn, Beca, he's _hot_." It was said as a diversion for what she really wanted to say, _'Oh my God, Beca! You look terrible.' _The four other Bellas and Beca stared at her. "What? Just because he's a Treble and an idiot doesn't mean I can't appreciate his fine ass."

"He's not an idiot." Beca's voice was small and oddly quiet but highly defensive.

"Just because he's been helping you for the last two days doesn't mean you have to defend him, Beca. We all know he screwed up." Cynthia-Rose piped up with Stacie and Lilly agreeing. Fat Amy, Chloe and Beca shared a look which earned the three raised eyebrows from their friends. "Or is there something we don't know?"

Fat Amy turned her head, looking extremely guilty while Chloe just looked over to Beca, signalling that the time had come to be honest about everything. Beca nodded and gestured around the room. "Make yourselves at home. Kimmy-Jin won't be back so feel free to use her bed..."

As the girls settled themselves around the room, Beca thought about what she was going to say. She didn't blame the girls (except for Chloe and Fat Amy) for believing that Jesse had been the reason behind their failed friendship, that's the way it would seem if you didn't know the full story, which they didn't. She was prepared for them to think of her as a terrible person and an even worse friend after they heard what had actually happened.

Beca heaved a sigh, ignoring the pain from breathing in too deeply. "Jesse's not the one that screwed up, I am.

All the girls, bar Chloe and Amy, stared at Beca with confused looks upon their faces. They took a minute to fully process Beca's part confession before Cynthia-Rose spoke up. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," she looked to Chloe and Amy for reassurance. "I'm the one that screwed up. Jesse was only doing what he thought best and I pushed him away. I pushed him to the point where I'd gone too far and then I acted like a child and sulked, instead of being the bigger person and apologising. When I did, he wanted nothing more to do with me and I realised I was too late."

"I still don't get what happened." Stacie said, to which Beca grimaced at the thought of going through it again.

"I guess it started with when he tried to kiss m-"

"HE WHAT!" Screamed the five members of the Bellas. Beca quickly realised that she hadn't told Amy and Chloe that part, seeing as they had contributed to the sound resonating around the room.

"He tried to kiss me. Months ago, but I pulled away. We were just getting comfortable as friends and we were in here watching the end of a movie and he moved in, but I pulled away and paused it. We just sat here in awkwardness until Kimmy-Jin came in. I think he sort of realised that I didn't wanna be more than what we were, because he didn't try again."

"Why did you pull away?" Lillys voice was barely audible but still they all heard it.

"Because," Beca shifted uncomfortably. "I didn't wanna break the oath..." They all raised their eyebrows at her, clearly not believing a word she was saying. Chloe gave her a disapproving look, unimpressed that she still wasn't telling them the full truth. It took Beca a fraction of a second to remember that it was only Jesse that knew the full reasoning behind her mistrust of people. "Alright... I have serious trust issues that stem from my Dad that I will tell you about but can I explain one thing at a time? I don't want you guys to hate Jesse for no reason anymore."

The girls nodded and Beca breathed a sigh of relief. All she had to do was get through her failed friendship with Jesse and then they'd at least understand some of it.

"Okay, so, where was I? Right, Jesse tried to kiss me but I pulled away. I don't do relationships, never have, and when I hooked up with people I made sure it was someone I was never likely to see again. I reasoned with myself that kissing Jesse would be a terrible thing and I'd regret, which I probably would at the time, and I didn't want to lead him on and hurt him. He was the only friend I had outside of you guys. Let's face it, I'm not exactly easy to get along with am I?" There were a few murmurs with agreement. Stacie opened a bag of chips and passed them round, only to have to open another when Amy refused to share. Beca accepted the chicken club that was handed to her and the group snacked in silence for a few minutes before she started speaking again. "Things were awkward after that. We still texted, but not as often. We didn't meet up on the quad and hang out together that much either but we were still friends. When I got arrested, Jesse was the only one that was there when I got bailed out. I know you guys were here and waited up but he was actually outside waiting for me, but he called my dad to bail me out, and that was when things really started to go downhill."

"So," Stacie said through a mouthful of chocolate. "To really understand we _do_ need to know about your issues with your dad?"

Beca thought about it. She tried to understand form their point of view; it possible to see where she was coming from, but fully get it, you did have to know everything. "Yes and no. Just let me explain please? I felt like he really betrayed me by calling my dad. That's something I never expected him to do. It took me ages to realise that he didn't know why he shouldn't but I just didn't know how to say sorry. We barely spoke and then all that happened at the semis and he was only trying to help and I turned on him like he was the enemy. That was the last straw for him. I didn't see him before he left for spring break and I spent the whole week watching the movies he loves and I left him message after message but he didn't respond. I tried going to his dorm and apologising but it was too late. He said I didn't understand why he was so upset, and he was right, I didn't. He hasn't spoken to me since, until yesterday when he came to find me. Jesse hasn't actually done anything wrong."

"Wow, Beca" Cynthia-Rose whistled out a breath. Amy and Chloe, who already knew most of what Beca had just told them, gave her approving nods for finally opening up. Stacie and Lilly sat opened-mouthed, crumbs falling from their lips.

"Pretty shitty friend right?" They nodded, not even looking guilty for doing so. Beca understood, she knew it herself.

"But things are okay between you now though?" Amy prompted, not wanting the others to dwell on Becas actions.

"Oh, yeah." Beca smiled, surprising the girls, who had all only seen her smile sarcastically. "We did _a lot_ of talking yesterday. About things I've never told anyone; about my mom, my dad... Sheila. He understands, and we're fine now, but I don't expect him to trust me not to put my walls up again. I'll try not to, for him, but it's hard to change. Possible, but hard."

They murmured their agreement and Beca breathed a sigh of relief. The relief she felt was short lived, however, because Lilly's barely audible voice rang out.

"Can we hear about your dad now?"

Beca groaned but relented, having vowed to herself that she'd at least attempt to be more open to her friends... and they all looked as though they'd jump her if she refused. So she told them; everything she had revealed to Jesse the night before she now repeated to the five women in front of her. There were gasps from them in all the right places, coos of sympathy when acceptable and, when Beca told them about her mom, they each shed a tear for her.

They all hugged Beca in turn once she'd finished speaking. It felt incredibly good knowing that they all finally had some sort of understanding as to why she was the way she was. Beca didn't expect them to condone her behaviour and the way she coped over the years (she didn't even think it was the best way to handle it anymore), but none of them said a word. Beca looked up at her friends, smiling at each of them but faltering slightly at the sight of Stacie. She was giving her a look she hadn't before - a look of disapproval.

"Let's hear it, Stace."

"You're in love with Jesse."

They all looked at the busty brunette, clearly not understanding why she was bringing it up now – or how exactly she'd come to that precise conclusion. Beca, understandably, was the most affected by the statement. She gaped at her friend. "Come again?"

"You're in love with Jesse. I'm majoring in Psychology, Beca, and all the signs are there."

"Psychology, really? How did I not know that?"

Stacie smiled gently at her and moved to sit on the edge of her bed. "Your cheeks have had a constant blush to them since he left and every time his name as been mentioned, your eyes widen and your breath hitches. It's also the most I've seen you smile in one sitting while you've been talking about him. Told you, all the signs."

All the girls made murmurs of agreement and nodded their heads. Beca took a few minutes to really think about Stacie's statement before her eyes doubled in size and her breathing quickened.

"Holy shit, I'm in love with Jesse."

"Told ya."

If Beca had the energy, she would have jumped from the bed and paced the length of the room, but she didn't. Instead, she was only able fend off the onset of a panic attack from against her pillows. Stacie gripped her shoulders and shook her roughly, forcing Beca to focus on her.

"Beca, you need to calm down. You're fine, everything is fine. I'll help you work through this."

Beca nodded and felt herself calming down. How could she have gone this long without realising she was in love with him? She had missed him during their time of not talking more than she'd ever missed anyone. Seeing him made her instantly happy... was that love? She wasn't sure... she'd never been in love before.

"What do I do?"

"Tell him!" Cynthia-Rose blurted out, Lilly nodding in agreement.

"I can't do that!"

"Why not, Beca?" Chloe moved to join Stacie sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Because..."

"Because what?" Chloe crawled to the empty space next her friend, the space which Jesse had fallen asleep next to her in, and placed her arm around Becas shoulder. She was staring at her with wide, concerned eyes and Beca felt as though she could no longer hide anything from her.

"Because..." Beca sighed. "I don't know how."

The girls immediately burst in to discussion about how exactly Beca could reveal to Jesse that she loved him. Chloe neglected to join them, opting instead to stay at Beca's side and silently encourage her to think about actually telling him. Neither were particularly paying attention at first, but they both soon found it impossible not to.

"She could always.. you know, blurt it out?"

"No, that won't work. It needs to be something bigger, something spectacular."

"He watches a load of movies right? I mean, the guy practically recites the entire scripts. Why not do something from one of them?"

"Like a big romantic gesture? That could work... in fact, it's brilliant!"

"I could always get -"

"No, Amy, no kangaroos."

"She could sing to him!"

At that point, Becas head shot up. Music had always been her way of expressing herself, why not use it this time? "That may work." Her words were slow as she tried to figure out the perfect song and the perfect setting, but she was coming up empty. Nothing seemed all that special to her, at least nothing special enough to make her want to confess her love to Jesse with. It seemed the girls had drawn to a similar, if not the same, conclusion... until Lily's oh so quiet voice filtered across the room.

"The ICCA finals."

Everyone looked at her and she shrugged. They all knew she was right, and it was the biggest event at which to do it, but there was just one problem...

"Eh, that's a good idea and all, but Beca's not a Bella anymore." Trust Fat Amy to be the one to point out the obvious.

"No..." Chloe said, pushing herself up from the bed. She walked slowly over to her bag and reached inside, pulling out a small, blue book. "But she could be."

"What do you mean?" Beca said slowly, eyeing the book suspiciously; where had she seen it before?

"Is that -" started Stacie before snatching it from Chloes hands. "It is! It's the 'Barden Bella Handbook' Aubrey gave us the week after initiation?. You really carry this round with you?"

"Of course." She took the book back from Stacie and handed it to Beca, looking extremely guilty. "Read page ten."

Beca immediately ruffled through the pages and found what Chloe wanted, reading it aloud for everyone to hear. "_'In the event of the current holder of the pitch pipe not leading the Bellas at a National Champion standard, she may be removed from her post as Captain. The group as a collective have the option to vote and elect a new leader, and the pitch pipe will be passed along. However, this can only be done if there is a unanimous decision (amongst the remaining members of the Bellas – the current Captain is not permitted to vote) as to who the new leader will be (majority vote will not count). Voting must take place in front of a member of the Barden faculty for it to to be classed as an official vote. Please note: candidate for the new Captain need not be a member of the Barden Bellas to be put forward as Captain, but must still be a student at present.'_"

Beca finished reading and they all sat in silence for a few minutes, the weight of what she'd just read aloud settling in. Beca only had eyes for Chloe, whose own were closed tight, tears slipping from beneath the lids. It now occurred to the brunette that, Chloe, had just possibly betrayed her oldest friend by alerting them to that particular Bella rule. If she hadn't, Beca was certain they'd never had found it out, none of them having ever actually read the handbook. All of a sudden, Fat Amy let out a bark of laughter, everyone looking to her in slight alarm.

"Amy, what the hell?"

"Sorry... but it's like that rule was specifically written for Aubrey and Beca."

"Well..." Chloe turned her back on all of them, sniffing lightly.

"Chlo?" If Beca had the energy, she'd have got up and gone to her.

"It was written for them." Chloe took a deep breath and turned back to them. "I was the one who wrote it."

* * *

Across campus, Jesse was sitting outside the Treble house, waiting for Bumper to turn up so rehearsals could start. He was thinking about Beca, and how she was doing being stuck in her dorm with the Bellas. He smiled at the thought of her not being alone though; she could barely move _with_ help, he hated to imagine what she would be like if she had no one there tonight.

Benji, who had been passing by on the way back to their dorm, spotted him sitting alone on the steps leading to the house. If it wasn't for the jingling of the coins and small metal chains his friend kept in his pockets, Jesse wouldn't have even realised him approaching. He beckoned Benji over to join him, and he did, taking a seat on the step below.

"Hey, man." Jesse was smiling, still thinking of last night with Beca.

"Hey. You didn't come back to the dorm after your shift last night. Everything okay?" Benji's voice was weighed down with concern and Jesse was touched by how much the guy in front of him had come to care for him since the beginning of the year.

"Yeah," he said, grinning as he patted his friends back. "Believe it or not, I actually spent the night at Beca's."

"Oi oi!" The two room mates turned quickly to find Donald grinning broadly at them from the doorway to the house. "Don't let Bumper hear you say that, but get in there Jesse-boy! How was it? I thought you two weren't talking?"

Jesse rolled his eyes as Benji blushed a deep red. "We wasn't, but we are now. And it's not like that, okay?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "We shared a bed but that's it, nothing happened."

"So," Donald sat down next to Jesse and raised an eyebrow at him. "Let me get this straight. You spent the night sharing the bed of the girl you've liked since before you even knew her name, and just reconnected with, and _nothing_ happened?

Jesse nodded.

"Not everything has to be about sex..." Benji's face, which had started to lose some of the redness, reverted to an even darker shade.

"Exactly! Thank you!" Jesse slapped Benji hard on the back, causing him to jolt and wince.

"Alright, alright!" Donald threw up his hands and laughed. "What did you do then?"

"Talked."

"_Talked._" Donald said in disbelief.

"Yes, talked." Jesse rolled his eyes again.

"About?" Donald sounded sceptical.

"Stuff you know?" Jesse rubbed the back of his neck once more, wondering how much he should reveal to them. "Cleared the air about what happened between us, spoke a little about her time before Barden. Literally just 'stuff'."

"Wow," Donald whistled out. "You got the girl to open up; that's got to be some kind of achievement worth celebrating."

"I think the pain meds she was on helped loosen her tongue a little."

"Pain meds?" Benji asked, his head shooting up. He had seemingly gotten over his embarrassment, and both he and Donald were looking at Jesse, slightly concerned.

"She had an accident a few days ago, got hit by a car. That's why no one's seen her around campus – hence why I went there last night." The two of his friends both opened their mouths to speak but Jesse cut them off with a raised hand. "She's fine. A little battered and bruised, but otherwise fine."

"Should we take her some flowers?" Benji looked uncertain - and Jesse understood why; Beca wasn't exactly the type to accept flowers. He smiled at the offer.

"Beca's not the flower type, but she'd appreciate the gesture all the same." Benji nodded as Jesse checked his watch, before turning to his fellow Treble. "Shouldn't Bumper be here by now?"

"Nah," said Donald, shaking his head. "He got a call from some guy in LA, said to go ahead and start without him."

"Great," Jesse sighed; a call from LA couldn't be a good thing or the rest of them. He turned to his room mate. "You wanna stay, Benji?"

Benji shook his head and stood, stuffing his hands in his pockets and slumping his shoulder forward. "Nah, don't wanna risk Bumper finding me here. Besides, I have a paper due in at the end of the week."

"You sure?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, yeah, enjoy yourselves," Benji said, waving goodbye and walking back towards campus.

"You know," said Donald, clapping Jesse on the back. "Bumpers the only reason Benji isn't a Treble. Soon as he's gone, your man's got a place."

"Yeah," Jesse sighed, watching Benji's retreating back. "Doesn't make me feel any less guilty for being one though. The Treblemakers was his dream not mine, yet I got in and he didn't."

Donald nodded in understanding and Jesse turned to let himself in the house, but was stopped by the sound of his fellow Treble.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Jesse turned back to him. "About Benji?"

Donald shook his head. "'Bout Beca."

"Oh." Jesse ran a hand through his hair. "Go ahead."

"How many times are you gonna put yourself out there with her, if she's just gonna keep pushing you away?" His voice was low and concerned.

Jesse sighed at the question, he understood where his friend was coming from, and he was touched that he was looking out for him. He smiled and shrugged.

"This time's different." Donald raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "No, really. This time feels different. You don't realise how many walls were broken down last night. She told me things she'd never told anyone before. By the end of the semester, they'll all be down."

"That's great and everything," Donald moved to Jesse's side and sighed. "Look, no one wants to see you get hurt again, okay? You've spent the last two months moping over the girl you love, and -"

"Whoa," Jesse said, holding his hands in the air and backing up a few steps. "Hold up, who said anything about being in love with her? I _like_ her, sure, but I'm not in _love_ with her."

Donald laughed and threw open the door to the house. "Keep telling yourself that, Jess. But I'm telling you now; no guy acts like you do for girl he just _likes_. We can all see it, open your eyes and you will to."

Jesse stared after him as Donald stepped inside, leaving the door open for him to follow. Was what he said true? Was he indeed in love with Beca? He wasn't sure, it was something he really needed to think about, though... now that it was out there, he was really starting to see where Donald was coming from.

* * *

All the girls turned to look at Chloe, mouths open and struggling for words. No one knew what to say, and Beca for the life of her couldn't figure out if she had even heard right. Chloe turned away from them again, her shoulders shaking where she had now started to sob. Amy, Beca noticed, was opening her mouth so often, it was as though she was imitating a fish. The others were just staring, each trying to comprehend the gravity of Chloe;s involvement in the rule. Beca understood though, she just needed an explanation on _why_.

"Chlo?" she said, leaning forward as far as her ribs would allow. Chloe didn't move, but her body continued to shake as she sobbed in to her hands with her back to them. Beca tried to push herself up but found she just didn't have the physical energy to do so. "Chloe, you're gonna have to turn yourself round and face me."

"Yeah, Chloe, you -"

"Quiet," Stacie said, cutting Fat Amy off mid-sentence. "Let Beca deal with this. Keep her calm, Bec."

Beca rolled her eyes and tilted her head at her. "Kinda already aiming to do that, thanks."

"Just saying." Stacie held her hands up in surrender, though she said it with a smile.

No one in the room spoke again as they all waited for Chloe to turn round. The only sound that filled the room for the next two minutes was Chloe's sobs, until they started to due down and eventually turned in to nothing but hiccups. The Bellas and Beca continued to wait in silence until Chloe finally found the courage to face them. She had her eyes closed, refusing to look at them. Beca gave her another minute to herself, by which time she'd opened her eyes, but decided to focus her gaze out the window.

"You wrote it?" She spoke in the softest voice she could muster. Chloe nodded. "Why?"

"Because..." Chloe's voice hitched up again she took a deep breath to settle herself down again. She finally looked at her, and Beca was taken aback by the fire in Chloe's eyes. "In all the years of auditions me and Aubrey have been involved in, you're the only one to ever give her a run for her money, to challenge her. I mean, don't get me wrong, all us girls are good, but Beca -"

"Beca's the best the Bella's have had." Cynthia-Rose's statement shocked Beca. Her eyes widened and she didn't know how to respond.

"Exactly!" Chloe threw her hands up in the air and started pacing the length of the room.

Beca looked between them all before letting out a shaky laugh. "Come on, we're all as good as each other, guys."

"No, Chloe's got a point." Stacie stood up and grabbed the pacing Bella's arm to stop her from moving anymore before turning them both to face Beca. "We all followed the rules and auditioned with the chosen song and got in. You came in, sat on the stage with a plastic cup, sang and still got in. You're not afraid of trying new things if it'll boost our chances of winning," she smiled sadly at her now. "Even if it ends up not working."

Beca scoffed and spoke quietly, hoping they wouldn't actually hear her. "Yeah, and look where that got me."

Fat Amy stood and joined the two standing up, also turning to face Beca. "Yeah, and it was you, Shawshank, that punched a guy for one friend, and smashed a window trying to stop me going all Tasmanian on that guy. You went to jail for that, because you actually care about the well being of us girls."

"Okay," Beca said, pushing herself up, only to groan in pain when she went too far. "First up, I screwed the Bella's place in the final because of my improvisation. I shouldn't have done that and you're lucky the Footnotes got disqualified otherwise you wouldn't be going at all. Second, the window was an accident. Third, it wasn't a real jail and I got let off with a warning. And forth, none of that stuff explains why Chloe wrote that rule."

"Now Beca has a point." Cynthia-Rose stood up now, the ever silent Lily following immediately. They all waited for Chloe to speak now, and speak she did.

"I wrote it, because I knew something like this was going to happen. I saw how much Aubrey disliked Beca at the beginning of the year and I knew Beca's time in the Bellas was limited and would end in one of two ways: Aubrey kicking her out, or Beca quitting." Chloe drew a shaky breath and moved to sit on Kimmy-Jins former bed, head in her hands.

"You wrote it to protect my position as a Bella?" Beca stared at Chloe, disbelief evident in her voice - no one had gone out of their way to keep her included in something like this before. She just couldn't understand _why_ Chloe would do it. They barely knew each other when the rule was written, why would Chloe jeopardise her friendship for someone new? She just had to know. "Why, Chlo?"

"Because I knew you would be our only chance at winning." Chloe wiped her eyes and managed to give Beca a small smile. "We've always needed to up our game but neither Aubrey or Alice, the girl who led the Bella's last year, wanted to. The Bella's haven't won the National title for years, and this is my last chance at winning before I graduate. When you performed that first day, Beca, I knew you were gonna be the reason we'd win. You're different, you're better and that's what we needed. Aubrey didn't think you would be the right fit but I begged her to pick you. I saw the way she looked at you and I needed to put something in place for when something like what has happened, happened. There needed to be a way to force Aubrey's hand if things got out of control, so I spoke to the Dean and he agreed to adding the new rule. Aubrey put me in charge of the handbooks, so all I had to do was add it, have the new books printed and handed to you guys."

They all gaped at Chloe, unable to find the words to express how truly shocked they were. None of them could believe that Chloe could have foreseen things ending up the way they had. It was laughable really, now that Beca and the rest of them thought about it, how Aubrey seemingly hadn't brought up the fact that she could be removed if the girls thought she wasn't living up to the role of leader. She could see Cynthia-Rose drawing to the same conclusion and, after a few seconds of debating with each other through a furious and intense eye battle, Beca sat back and listened while her friend cleared her throat.

"Hold up, what did Aubrey say when she saw page ten for the first time? She reads that thing like _all_ the time."

The renewed sobs Chloe broke in to came hard and fast, startling the Bellas and Beca. It was at that moment something clicked and Beca closed her eyes and sighed.

"Aubrey doesn't know any of this, does she?" Chloe slowly shook her head. "Awh shit, Chlo."

"How's that even possible?" Stacie muttered, more to herself than to anyone else, though she caught Lilly nodding in agreement to her statement.

Beca took one look at Chloe's demeanour and knew she had to go over to her. She caught Amys eye and motioned over to her. She responded instantly and helped Beca hobble the short walk to the red head and sit down next to her. She wrapped her arms round Chloe the best she could, and tugged at her until her head met Beca's shoulder. Beca breathed through the pain as she held her friend while she cried, knowing that Chloe was truly coming to terms with how much she had really betrayed one of her oldest friends, and the realisation that it wasn't over. The other girls seemed to understand how serious the situation now was, because they all made their selves comfortable around the room, not speaking while they waited for Chloe to recover.

It took just over fifteen minutes for the tears to stop and they hiccuping to start. Beca rubbed Chloes back as the red head steadied her breathing and took one look at her friends and fellow teammates. She pushed herself away from Beca and took a deep breath.

"Aubrey has no idea." The girls nodded, but stayed quiet. "She still has her original Bella handbook that we got when we joined four years ago. It's been in every bag she owns and she never goes anywhere without it. Not telling her was so easy, all I needed to do was make sure she didn't have a copy of the new one. If she knew about the new rule, she'd flip. I was hoping she wouldn't have to find out, but she's given me no choice now."

"Wow." The girls spoke as a collective, no one wanting to add anything as they all stared at Chloe.

"I want to win." Chloe said truthfully, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "And I hate having to jeopardise our friendship but she will be the reason we lose. This way she can still be a Bella, she can still win with us, but she won't rule us."

One by one the girls nodded, each going up and hugging Chloe, whispering words of sympathy and encouragement to her. Finally, they all turned to Beca, expecting her to make the final decision.

"Are you sure you guys can really go through with this?"

"If we don't," Cynthia-Rose started, before being cut off by Amy.

"Your skinny ass will never tell Jesse you love him."

"Screw me and Jesse for a minute," Beca said. "This is about you guys going behind Aubreys back. Would I love to be back in the Bellas? Sure, but we all have to be sure we know what we're doing. Are you guys prepared for this?"

They all looked to each before nodding. Stacie grabbed Beca's cell and handed it to her. "Call your dad, he can oversee the vote. I'll text the others and let them know to meet here in the morning, the sooner we do this, the harder it'll be for us the back out. We all wanna win, and Chloes right, Aubrey running the show will be a sure fine way for us to go home with nothing. We're doing this for us, Beca, not just to get you and Jesse together."

"Aubreys gonna hate us, are you prepared for that?" Beca turned her head to stare at Chloe. "Chlo?"

Chloe lifted her head and stared back, a new and fierce determination in her eyes. "I'm prepared to take the fall to give us a chance, but I'm not prepared to go to the finals and lose out when we have the chance to be the best all female acapella group there is."

Looking round the group one final time and getting their confirmation that it's what they truly wanted, Beca tapping her dads number in to the keypad. "Alright, let the others know to be here for six; we have a shit load of work to do."

With the screams and the squeals of the girls celebrating, and the weight of Chloes exhausted form collapsing next to her, Beca pressed the call button and waited patiently for her dad to answer. She wasn't entirely convinced they were doing the right thing by going behind Aubreys back but she understood the reasoning. The sounds of her dads voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

_"Beca, are you there?"_

"Yeah dad," she took a deep breath and sighed. "Listen, I need you to do me a favour..."


End file.
